Is North Dakota Prepared For A MAJOR Disaster?

We always hope we’re prepared for anything and everything, but do we actually know how prepared our state is for any given disaster or catastrophic event?

According to Smilehub.org, the United States had the most billion dollar disasters in recorded history during the year 2023.

SmileHub.org ranked each state for preparedness on major disasters, and the question you're probably asking is "Should we be concerned?"

How To Assess Which States Are Least And Most Prepared

To come up with these findings, the source looked up different 14 different key metrics to find out which states were most and least prepared.

This includes everything from fire and police stations per capita, presence of enhanced disaster mitigation plans, and community resilience scores.

They also looked at how many physicians there were per capita, mental health counselors per capita, National Guard members per capita, and the overall accessibility to computers and smart phones.

Least Prepared

Let’s look at the state that’s the least prepared for disaster, before we get into North Dakota.

Sadly, Mississippi is the least prepared state in the country; its total score is only 26.56.

It’s resilience and infrastructure and support capacity rank is very low all the way down at 43, and disaster funding ranks at 29 among other states.

What About North Dakota?

You’ll probably be happy to hear the North Dakota is one of the most disaster ready states according to the source.

We come in at number four with a total score of 53.63. We rank at number five resilience, infrastructure and support capacity. We rank at number five for disaster prevention planning and funding, and rank at number 28 for disaster risk and lasting damage.

The Most Disaster Ready State?

The honor of "Most Disaster Ready State" goes to Massachusetts. It's then followed by Vermont and Hawaii.

Overall, North Dakota has the third most North National Guard members per capita second or third to Vermont and Alaska.