Do hurricanes save more lives than they take?

So I got to wondering a few minutes ago whether or not more lives are saved in the grand scheme of things when a big storm hits. Now the latest death toll from the storm was 17 people and I'm just wondering if anyone out there was able to guesstimate whether more people lived than died due to the storm. I believe the daily death toll is around 6700 people a day in the US but my thinking is since many of those deaths are car related if people being stuck at home unable to leave their homes and therefore not driving actually made the death toll decline for the day.

Im trying to find some statistics but figured I would just throw that out there and gather some of yalls thoughts

reply to post by lobotomizemecapin


Interesting thought.....Apparently 148 people die in New York City on a daily basis. wiki.answers.com...

It seems somewhat plausible with only 17 people dead in seven states from storm Sandy that you might be on to something!

I'm imagining though, that plenty of people died from other causes than the Storm on that day......Tracking down all the numbers might be a difficult task. Nonetheless....You're idea intrigues me!

Ha! Thats such a good point. I hadnt thought of that.

I bet you are correct.

Originally posted by bhornbuckle75
reply to post by lobotomizemecapin

 

Interesting thought.....Apparently 148 people die in New York City on a daily basis. wiki.answers.com...

It seems somewhat plausible with only 17 people dead in seven states from storm Sandy that you might be on to something!

I'm imagining though, that plenty of people died from other causes than the Storm on that day......Tracking down all the numbers might be a difficult task. Nonetheless....You're idea intrigues me!

Yeah Im not having any luck with the numbers. You would think the sensationalist news would hype the numbers by adding car accident deaths and fires, etc etc to the final count. seems they would add any that were loosely related

Good point.

I'm sure that were a lot less muggings and robberies, as people were locked up in their homes and the store fronts boarded up. Junkies were unable to contact their dealers and prostitutes weren't hanging out on street corners either.

Cops weren't raiding and no drive by shootings were reported.

All and all a very good day for New York city!

Interesting theory! Not unlike the way the air quality was better after 9/11...

its not that it "saves lives" but it helps to "prevent" to some degree I guess...

But thinking that way, then a nuclear holocaust will too because its not like you'll be ran over by a school bus, or hit by a speeding train, nor will your plane crash, cause you'll be 200ft underground in a bunker...

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni

But thinking that way, then a nuclear holocaust will too because its not like you'll be ran over by a school bus, or hit by a speeding train, nor will your plane crash, cause you'll be 200ft underground in a bunker...

that is about the dumbest thing I have heard all month, not even close to what Im talking about lol

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni
its not that it "saves lives" but it helps to "prevent" to some degree I guess...

But thinking that way, then a nuclear holocaust will too because its not like you'll be ran over by a school bus, or hit by a speeding train, nor will your plane crash, cause you'll be 200ft underground in a bunker...

That is a really stupid comment. Far more people would die from a nuclear holocaust than from a hurricane, so that is not comparable at all.
The deaths from a nuclear blast near a populated region would also kill far more than the normal deaths from car accidents as well.