One aspect of this approach is that a big disaster in a relatively unpopulated county can result in a large number of unexpected deaths.
My suspicians about the bright red county in Washington as correct. It is Skamania County, home of Mount St. Helens. Over 50 people died in 1980 from that natural disaster. That’s a lot at one time for a country with 10,000 residents.
The Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 resulted in over 60 deaths but SF is still a region on blue. For it to proportionally be similar to Mount St. Helen’s, over 21000 in the metropolitan area would have had to die. The 1906 earthquake killed about 3000 people.
So you can see why lightly populated counties would be more likely to be red than urbanized ones. A bad flood might kill the same number of people in both but it will be a higher percentage in a low density county.
Of course, this does give an indication of what YOUR chances of being killed by a natural disaster if you live in a county with few people. The coasts Northern California, Oregon and Washington seem to be particularly likely to result in excess deaths. These counties receive tremendous storms, with hurricane force winds and high water, killing people every year.
I would also reckon that these counties are some of the least populated coastal counties along the West Coast if not in the whole country. A handful of deaths here could make it a red county.
