Death Map

[dan]

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,468325,00.html

This is the story about the proportional number of deaths from natural (but not medical) occurrences, mainly weather and disaster causes.

I've looked at this "death map" on line and it seems that upstate NY is on the high side statistically, but I can't find a website that I can break the numbers down to individual counties. It looks like Herkimer and Fulton counties are high. Is anyone else able to find the county breakdowns?

[bobbbiez]

Now, that's a great topic for the holidays.

Seriously, I still would prefer to live in this area. Hearing the news every day about disasters in other States I find myself stating just that. Hard to believe NYS is on the high list.

[dgriffin]

That's intriguing. I scanned the pdf they have available, but I'm too tired to give it a rigorous study. I mean, too tired for life to be following these interesting reports.

I did notice, however, that for New York State, almost three quarters of the death stats are for winter weather and severe weather. More than 3/4, if you include heat/drought. Since we don't have droughts severe enough to normally cause death, I interpret that as death from heat stroke. The map color really reddens up in the Central Adirondacks, which might, considering weather and heat, tell us that we lose a lot of skiers and vacationers. But the report also cautions that although the authors tried to make up for it, the "small number problem" that skews statistics is always evident when analyzing sparsely populated areas. In other words, the stats are skewed upward, dramatically.

Also, the government data they used (SHELDUS)to do their research is not age adapted, so they used standard age structuring routines, I believe they were called. But the full time population of the Adirondacks is quite skewed by retirees and one wonders if they were able to properly adapt the numbers.

Finally, if I read it right, this research is based on information the authors gained from the SHELDUS report, which is based on information gleaned from the NCDC Storm Data report, which until 1995 didn't even report deaths if the event didn't amount to at least $50,000 in damage! And this report will be updated IN THE FUTURE when the SHELDUS folks figure out some way to simulate the non-existent data!

So if it's all storm related in the middle of the Adirondacks, and doesn't include falling out of canoes and heat stroke after a climb up Marcy in July, why is the map so red?
I'm not sure I believe this report.