It isn't necessarily more likely that a particular person will experience an earthquake rather than a hurricane. The hurricane season runs from June to November and there tend to be about 85 hurricanes of varying strength each year. In comparison, there are about 500,000 detectable earthquakes each year around the world.
A hurricane is a storm that forms over the Atlantic or Caribbean ocean, with wind speeds of 74 miles per hour or more. Around 40% of the hurricanes that hit the USA each year cross Florida. But Florida is known to experience very little seismic activity. So a person living in Florida is far more likely to experience a hurricane than an earthquake.
More about natural disasters:
- Hurricanes were once solely named for women, but male names were added to the lists in 1978.
- The USGS considers earthquakes serious a risk for more than 75 million people in the United States, particularly those living along the West Coast.
- The most costly natural disaster in history was the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011, which is estimated to have caused damages amounting to around $325 billion.