These U.S. Cities Are the Safest Refuges From Natural Disasters

Worried about wildfires? Deathly afraid of tornadoes? If you're an American with such insecurities, take heart that there are sanctuaries where the chances of being gobsmacked by a natural disaster are quite low. The price of relative safety, though, means relocating to somewhere like Akron, Ohio, or Michigan's unassuming Farmington Hills.

Upstate New York and Ohio are two of the regions where urban residents are least likely to encounter hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, forest fires and earthquakes, according to a new analysis conducted by Trulia. The online real-estate service has crunched federal-disaster data to create a series of local maps showing the worst cities to live in for weatherphobes and quake-haters – stay out of California metropolises if you fear having your home burnt down, for instance, and Oklahoma City is a terrible place to hunker if you don't want EF-4 twisters knocking at your door. Writes the Trulia team: