Austin Ties Houston As State's Most Prone To Natural Disaster

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Austin tied with Houston as being among the most vulnerable cities to experience natural disaster in the U.S., according to a recent report.

Researchers at real estate brokerage firm Redfin scoured through Disaster Declaration Summaries data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine which areas are most prone to disaster. The data were used to assess frequency of five scenarios — earthquakes, floods, fires, hurricanes and tornadoes — in the nation's 50 most populous metropolitan areas.

Those five metrics were weighted on a scale of one to 100, with the latter denoting most hazardous. The numbers were then sussed out to achieve what Redfin dubbed a "Natural Disaster Hazard Score" in its report.

The upshot: Austin and Houston landed in the top 10 of most hazardous U.S. metro areas, with a total Natural Disaster Hazard Score of 41. According to the findings, the Texas cities shared the same score as New York City.

As expected, Houston outranked Austin in terms of frequency of hurricanes and flooding. But Austin ranked higher in the fire category, according to the study. In terms of tornado activity, both cities were assigned a score of 26.

Other Texas cities were found to be less prone to natural disaster, including San Antonio (ranked 34) and Dallas (37). San Antonio's score was notable given its highest score for hurricanes. The study showed that Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles were the nation's most disaster-prone cities, each garnering a score of 52. The least-prone: Providence, R.I.