SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's relationship with natural disasters is both a plus and a minus.
On the plus side, the state has relatively few natural disasters compared to states like Texas, California or Washington.
On the negative side, Utah has relatively few natural disasters — which can mean a lack of real-time experience with boots on the ground.
"We know we don't have the level of experience that other states do," said Joe Dougherty, spokesman for the Utah Division of Emergency Preparedness. "That is why we are always collaborating and building relationships. We don't want to meet each other for the first time when a disaster strikes."
An analysis commissioned by Gold Eagle, an all-purpose company offering all sorts of products, looked at each state's level of preparedness for natural disasters and gave them a numerical ranking.
Utah ended up near the middle of the pack at No. 30.
"While these are interesting statistics to look at, this doesn't paint the entire picture of preparedness," Dougherty said, noting the survey overlooked Utah's spirit of volunteerism.
"There wasn't anything about Utah's spirit or its community of volunteers. Utah has tremendous volunteering spirit, and when something bad happens, it is not that we always have to rely on the National Guard," he said.
The analysis examined the number of Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declarations from Jan. 1, 1953, to Dec. 31, 2017. Utah had 31, while Texas hit the top spot in the nation with 254, followed by California's 250.
Utah came out among the last in the number for disaster declarations, ranking 42 out of the 50 states.
The state spends nearly $27 million on its emergency preparedness budget a year. That equates to $8.44 for every person, compared to Washington's highest per capita spending of $104.11 and Missouri's lowest at 44 cents.
Two other factors were considered in the ranking: the number of National Guard members per capita and the state's letter grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Utah scored a C+ for its infrastructure from the engineers, which was above the national score of D+.
The state ranks 41st out of 50 for the number of National Guard troops, sitting at 7,000.
Dougherty noted that when disaster strikes, the governor is not always forced to call up the guard because of the tremendous community response.
"People will do amazing things and come together in this state. With the southern Utah floods, the bulk of the work was 1,500 Washington County volunteers who came out and mucked out people's homes, cleared the driveways and did all the work. We did not need assistance from the American people."
He noted the great Great Utah ShakeOut each year has the highest per capita participation in the nation, at about 33 percent.
"Utah has among the highest levels of personal preparedness in the nation. My counterparts in other states ask how do we get so many Utahns to engage in emergency preparedness. It's in our culture. We hear it at church. Utahns participate in many outdoor activities, which requires them to have survival supplies on hand."
Dougherty warns the mettle of Utah residents may be tested someday by an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude or greater.
"It will be unlike anything any Utahn has ever seen or lived through," he said.
People, in that instance, need to be prepared to be on their own for a week, maybe two, and have supplies on hand.
"Gone are the days of the 72-hour kit," he said. "But we feel confident that we will make sense out of chaos as quickly as we can."