15. Tornado Alley in the American Midwest
It doesn’t require ghosts or demonic possession for a place to be a terrifying place to live, as is proved when considering Tornado Alley in the United States. The term was coined as the title of a US Air Force study of severe weather in the central United States in 1952. Between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, along the Interstate 44 corridor, more than one million people reside in a region which is routinely struck by a series of tornadoes each spring. Since 1890, according to official records, more than 120 have struck Oklahoma City and its environs alone. On one day, May 3, 1999, seventy tornadoes ravaged the region known as Tornado Alley in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Oklahoma City has not gone more than five years without a tornado striking the area since 1950.
Along with the tornadoes, spawned by thunderstorms, comes heavy rains, and the topography of the Tulsa region makes it prone to severe flash floods. The combination of flooding and tornado damage is catastrophic in terms of loss, both financial and personal. In 1999 alone, during the May outbreak, tornadoes and flooding cost the lives of more than three dozen people and over $1 billion in damage to property, with an uncountable amount of lost productivity. Encountering spectral visitors should be peanuts compared to the fear of tornadoes which seemingly strike out of nowhere, with maddening frequency creating wanton destruction and death at random.