A new study of America's safest cities has put one Montana city in the top 20 overall and the top 10 for natural disaster risk.

This may come as a surprise because Montana ranks in the top 20 for violent crime according to safehome.org. But what is seemingly a bigger surprise is the city that ranked well for natural disasters had a natural disaster only a few months ago. Also, much of southeastern Montana experienced a 500-year flood only two years ago.

See Photos of Montana's Storms Below 📷

What is a "Safe City"? 

The WalletHub study for the "safest cities in America 2024" looked at more than just crime rates. The study's variables were broken down into three major categories that were broken down further into specific aspects of those categories.

Home & Community Safety includes crime, but also things like mass shootings or the number of law enforcement and active firefighters per capita. The Financial Safety category includes unemployment rates, debt-to-income ratios, savings and retirement, and other financial stability measures.

The Natural-Disaster risk category looked at:

  • Earthquakes
  • Riverine floods
  • Hail
  • Hurricane storms surge
  • Tornado
  • Wildfire

Just looking at the Natural Disaster category, Billings has all of the types of risk except one (hurricane storm surge) to some degree, which explains its ranking of 37 out of 180 cities, but another Montana city ranks in the top 10.

The Montana City That Ranks as One of the Safest 

Missoula ranked 8th for Natural Disaster Risk and 14th overall in WalletHub's list of safest cities. This news comes as a bit of a surprise considering Missoula experienced a natural disaster this summer. While the city experienced hurricane-force winds, it wasn't technically a hurricane and when looking at the other types of risk the most common concern in Missoula is usually wildfire.

But that risk isn't slight. Just recently a story for the Missoula Current shared by the Daily Montanan said, "Montana has the second highest percentage of at-risk properties with more than half of the structures in the state possibly vulnerable to wildfire." And last spring I wrote about Missoula being in the top 10 cities for highest fire danger according to HouseFresh. That seems to suggest wildfire should be considered a bigger risk for Montana cities, specifically Missoula.

But the potential for danger and demonstrated danger aren't the same. When considering that Houston was listed as the least safe city for Natural Disaster Risk, it brings to mind Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and the devastation it caused.

And the devastation we've seen in North Carolina and the South in the last week due to Hurricane Helene is heartbreaking.

Miraculously, no one was killed in the 500-year flood in Montana in 2022, nor the storm that hit Missoula in July 2024. It would seem that comparatively, Montana is a safe place to be.

The Aftermath of the Severe Thunderstorm in Missoula, Montana - July 2024

The National Weather Service cited 80 mph winds at the Missoula Montana Airport and over 100 mph winds at the apex of Mount Sentinel. Powerful winds left behind a path of broken trees, downed power lines, failing traffic lights, and debris as far as the eye can see.

Gallery Credit: Ace

25 Mind-Blowing Photos of Devastating Flooding in Montana

20 Mind-Blowing Photos of Devastating Flooding in Montana

Gallery Credit: Jesse James

Yellowstone National Park Rebuilds After Historic Flooding

After catastrophic flooding damaged portions of Yellowstone National Park in June of 2022, major reconstruction was necessary to make the park passable again. The following are photos of the improvement projects at Old Gardiner Road and the Northeast Entrance Road. All photos are courtesy of the National Park Service, photographer Jacob W. Frank.

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