Frankly, a belief that natural disasters only strike highly religious areas is quite strange, and I see no evidence for it. As Goladus pointed out, San Francisco gets earthquakes; that was also the first thing I thought of. But is there any part of the planet that doesn't suffer from natural disasters? I don't think anybody could make the original assertion without realizing these problems, and my explanation shouldn't be needed. If I could, I would have downmodded it.