Arizona rounds out list of states ‘most at risk’ for disasters

PHOENIX — Arizona has made it onto a list no one wants it to be on.

Kiplinger, a business and personal finance website, assembled a list featuring the 10 states “most at risk for disaster,” and Arizona ranked tenth.

Between 2006 and 2013, an estimated $3.5 billion in property damage occurred from both wet and dry conditions.

In 2011, the Wallow Fire burned over 500,000 acres in eastern Arizona, the largest fire on record for the state. A year prior, thunderstorms brought hail and even tornadoes to the Phoenix metro area, resulting in a whopping $2 billion in damage. In the same time span, there were 93 weather-related deaths.

Not surprisingly, the rest of the list was comprised of many coastal or “Tornado Alley” states in the Midwest. New Jersey topped the list with $26.4 billion in property damage from 2006 to 2013, with much of that due to Hurricane Sandy in 2012.