· There is a fire in a structure every 61 seconds, a fire injury every 28 seconds and a death caused by fire every 156 minutes.
Wind can be a ferocious part of many storms and it can do a lot of damage:
· Each year, an average of 100,000 thunderstorms occur across the U.S., lightning causes 300 injuries and 80 fatalities and 1200 tornadoes with winds up to 300 mph uproot trees, damage buildings and kill 70 people with 1,500 others injured.
However, the number one culprit for property destruction is Water:
· Flooding causes more property damage than any other disaster with annual losses in the billions of dollars.
· Flash floods (not lightning) are the #1 killer resulting from thunderstorms with more than 140 fatalities per year attributed to the rising waters.
Note: These facts were compiled by TRC Emergency Planning Specialist Andrew Moss for the annual Dare To Prepare Event sponsored by the Williams Companies. - Editor
NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is projecting a "near normal" 2009 hurricane season with a 70% chance of 9-14 named storms. Forecasters say one to three of those could grow into major hurricanes. Even a "near normal" or "below normal" season can produce hurricanes making landfall and it only takes one of those to bring devastation. (
Hurricanes are hard to predict. Now, a new phenomenon makes tracking tropical storms even more uncertain. Forecasters call them "Pop-Up Hurricanes." 
Approximately 35-million people reside in the hurricane prone Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coastal regions. According to a survey conducted by the Mason-Dixon Poll, the vast majority of those residents are not prepared if a hurricane strikes.
