I-44 Corridor Ranked As One Of The Most Dangerous Places In The World

The I-44 corridor between Oklahoma City and Tulsa is ranked as one of the eight most dangerous places to live,

according to a recent article in Popular Mechanics.

Of the eight locations, "Tornado Corridor" is the only one listed in the United States. Since 1950, that stretch has seen countless tornados. The only lull was between 1992-1998, where there were no tornados, the article said. However, in the following 11 months, 11 tornados hit.

"Each spring, as the cool, dry air from the Rocky Mountains glides across the lower plains, and the warm, wet air of the Gulf Coast comes north to meet it, the residents of this precarious stretch, locally called Tornado Alley, settle in for twister season."

More than 1 million people reside along the interstate running between Oklahoma's two most populous cities. Between 1950 and 2006, 69 tornados hit across Tulsa County, the magazine article stated.

Tulsa, due to its geographical location atop a series of creeks and flood plains, is especially susceptible to flooding. Major floods in 1974, 1976 and 1984 "caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage," the article said.

According to the article, more than 120 tornados have hit Oklahoma City. That included 70 hitting Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas on May 3, 1999. Those storms destroyed 1,700 homes, damaged another 6,500 and killed 40 people. Total damage was estimated at more than $1 billion.

The other top seven most dangerous places are:
- The Cold Pole, Verkhoyansk, Russia
- The Mountain of Fire, Mount Merapi, Indonesia
- Haiti's Perfect Storms, Gonaïves, Haiti
- The African Lake of Death, Lake Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo/Rwanda
- The Ephemeral Isles, The Maldives
- Hurricane Capital of the World, Grand Cayman
- China's Creeping Sandbox, Minquin County, China

You can read more here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4329314.html?page=1