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History of
Hurricane Costs
By: Katy Quinn
Summary of
significant hurricane
activity by decade since 1900. Data is
organized by Gulf
Coast or
East Coast and
includes size, deaths, and costs.
|
Decade
|
Saffir-Simpson Category1
|
All
1,2,3,4,5
|
Major
3,4,5
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
|
1851-1860
|
8
|
5
|
5
|
1
|
0
|
19
|
6
|
|
1861-1870
|
8
|
6
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
1
|
|
1871-1880
|
7
|
6
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
7
|
|
1881-1890
|
8
|
9
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
22
|
5
|
|
1891-1900
|
8
|
5
|
5
|
3
|
0
|
21
|
8
|
|
1901-1910
|
10
|
4
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
18
|
4
|
|
1911-1920
|
10
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
0
|
21
|
7
|
|
1921-1930
|
5
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
13
|
5
|
|
1931-1940
|
4
|
7
|
6
|
1
|
1
|
19
|
8
|
|
1941-1950
|
8
|
6
|
9
|
1
|
0
|
24
|
10
|
|
1951-1960
|
8
|
1
|
5
|
3
|
0
|
17
|
8
|
|
1961-1970
|
3
|
5
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
14
|
6
|
|
1971-1980
|
6
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
12
|
4
|
|
1981-1990
|
9
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
15
|
5
|
|
1991-2000
|
3
|
6
|
4
|
0
|
1
|
14
|
5
|
|
2001-2004
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
9
|
3
|
|
|
|
1851-2004
|
109
|
72
|
71
|
18
|
3
|
273
|
92
|
|
Average
Per Decade
|
7.1
|
4.7
|
4.6
|
1.2
|
0.2
|
17.7
|
6.0
|
- Gulf Coast
- 1900-1909
- Galveston
(1900)
- Category 4.
Storm tides were largely responsible for the 8,000 deaths (estimates
range from 6,000 to 12,000) attributed to the storm. The damage to
property was estimated at $30 million.
- Grand Isle,
LA (1909)
- Category 3. Responsible for 353 deaths. No damage was
recorded.
- 1910-1919
- New Orleans and Northeastern
Texas (1915)
- Category 4. 275
deaths. $50 million in damages.
- Atlantic-Gulf
1919
- Category 4 as
it passed south of Key West. Made landfall south of Corpus Christi as a Category 3.
Estimated at 600 to 900 deaths. More than 500 were lost on ships that
either sunk or were reported missing. Damage was estimated at $22
million.
- 1920-1929
- Miami
(1926)
- Category 4.
Estimated at $105 million. Death toll is uncertain.
Estimated at 350 deaths. More than 800 people were
missing in the aftermath of the cyclone. A Red Cross report lists 373
deaths and 6,381 injuries as a result of the hurricane.
- 1930-1939
- 1940-1949
- 1950-1959
- Audrey (1957)
- Made landfall
as a Category 4 near the Texas-Louisiana border. Surges were
responsible for the majority of the 390 deaths. Damage in the United States
was estimated at $150 million.
- 1960-1969
- Carla (1961)
- Category 4.
Responsible for 46 deaths. Damages were estimated at $400 million.
- Betsy (1965)
- Category 3. Responsible for 76 deaths and $1.42 billion in
damages.
- Camille
(1969)
- Hit the Mississippi
coast as a Category 5. Combination of winds, surges, and rainfalls
caused 256 deaths (143 on the Gulf
Coast and 113 in
the Virginia
floods) and $1.421 billion in damage.
- 1970-1979
- Agnes (1972)
- Hit the Florida
Panhandle coast as a Category 1. Responsible
for 122 deaths in the U.S. Nine of these were in Florida while the remainder were
associated with the flooding. Responsible for $2.1 billion in damage in
the US,
the majority came from the flooding.
- Eloise (1975)
- Category 3. Responsible for 80 deaths. Damages were
estimated at $490 million.
- David (1979)
- Category 2. Responsible for 2, 068 deaths.
Damages were estimated at $320 million.
- 1980-1989
- Alicia (1983)
- Made landfall
on the west of Galveston
Island, Texas
as a Category 3.
- 1990-1999
- Andrew (1992)
- Crossed south Florida as a
Category 4. Andrew hit the central Louisiana coast as a Category 3.
Responsible for 23 deaths in the United
States and 3 more in the Bahamas.
The hurricane caused $26.5 billion in damage in the United States, of which $1 billion
occurred in Louisiana and the rest in
south Florida.
Majority of the damage in Florida
was due to the winds.
- Erin (1995)
- Category 2
hurricane when it made landfall in Florida. Responsible for 6 deaths.
Damages were estimated at $700 million.
- Opal (1995)
- Category 3 when
it made landfall near Pensacola
Beach, Florida.
Surge was responsible for the bulk of the $3 billion in damage.
Responsible for 9 deaths in the United States, including 8
from falling trees and one from a tornado.
- Georges
(1998)
- Category 2
hurricane hit Louisiana and Mississippi.
Responsible for 602 deaths. Damages were estimated at $1.155 billion.
- Mitch (1998)
- Category 5.
Began as a hurricane and dissipated. The re-born Mitch crossed south Florida as a
tropical storm. Greatest impact was widespread heavy rains and severe
floods in Honduras,
Nicaragua,
Guatemala,
and El Salvador.
Mitch caused an estimated 9,000 deaths in Central
America with another 9,000 missing. 2 people died in the Florida Keys when a fishing boat capsized. Mitch
caused tremendous property, infrastructure, and crop damage in Central
America, and an additional $40 million in damage in Florida.
- 2000-2009
- Frances
(2004)
- Made landfall
near Stuart, Florida as a category 2. 8 deaths - seven in the United States and one in the Bahamas.
U.S.
damage is estimated to be near $8.9 billion.
- Ivan (2004)
- Made landfall
as a Category 3 just west of Gulf
Shores, Alabama.
The death toll from Ivan stands at 92 - 39 in Grenada, 25 in the United
States, 17 in Jamaica, 4 in Dominican Republic, 3 in Venezuela, 2 in
the Cayman Islands, and 1 each in Tobago and Barbados. U.S.
damage is estimated at $14.2 billion.
- Jeanne (2004)
- Hit the Florida coast near Stuart, where Frances
had come through three weeks earlier. Made landfall as a Category 3. Rains from the cyclone resulted in historic
floods in Puerto Rico, and deadly flash-floods and mudslides in Haiti,
where over 3000 people lost their lives and roughly 200,000 were left
homeless. Three deaths occurred in Florida,
and one each in Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and Virginia. Damages were estimated to
be $6.9 billion.
- Dennis (2005)
- Was a Category
3 over the western Florida Panhandle. Responsible for 42 deaths - 22 in
Haiti, 16 in Cuba, 3 in the United States, and 1 in Jamaica. Damage is
estimated at $2.23 billion.
- Katrina
(2005)
- Category 3. Damages are estimated at $81 billion in the New Orleans area and along the Mississippi
coast. Made landfall near the Miami-Dade/Broward county line. Katrina
made landfall a second time in Louisiana/Mississippi. Responsible for
approximately 1,833 deaths. Approximately 1000 in Louisiana
and 200 in Mississippi.
7 additional deaths occurred in southern Florida.
- Rita (2005)
- Category 5. Category 2 as it passed south of Key West, Florida. After entering the Gulf of Mexico, Rita intensified to Category 5.
It made landfall just east of the Texas/Louisiana border as a Category
3. Rita was responsible for 7 deaths and damages estimated at $10
billion.
- Wilma (2005)
- Crossed the Florida Peninsula as a Category 3. 22 deaths have been directly attributed to
Wilma: 12 in Haiti,
1 in Jamaica, 4 in Mexico, and 5 in Florida. Damages are estimated at
$16.8 billion in southern Florida.
- Gustav (2008)
- Category 2
hurricane.
- Ike (2008)
- Category 3
hurricane.
East Coast
- 1900-1909
- 1910-1919
- 1920-1929
- San
Felipe-Okeechobee (1928)
- Category 4. Made landfall area in Florida. 1,836 people died in Florida, mainly
due to the lake surge. Damage to property was estimated at $25 million
in Florida.
- 1930-1939
- Florida Keys Labor Day (1935)
- Category 5.
Second landfall near Cedar Key was a Category 2. Combination of winds
and tides were responsible for 408 deaths. Damage in the United States
was estimated at $6 million.
- New England (1938)
- Made landfall
over Long Island and Connecticut
as a Category 3. Responsible for 600 deaths and $308 million in damage
in the United States.
- 1940-1949
- Great Atlantic (1944)
- Category 3 at
landfalls at Cape Hatteras, Long Island, and Point Judith, Rhode
Island, and Category 2 as far north as the coast of Maine.
Caused 46 deaths and $100 million in damage in the United States. The worst damages occurred at sea to World War
II shipping. Five ships sank causing 344 deaths.
- 1950-1959
- Carol and Edna
(1954)
- Carol made
landfall as a Category 3 over Long Island,
New York and Connecticut.
Responsible for 60 deaths and $461 million in damage in the United States.
- Edna formed near
where Carol had formed two weeks before and followed a path just east
of Carol's. Made landfall over Cape Cod
as a Category 3. Responsible for 20 deaths and $40 million in damage in
the United States.
- Hazel (1954)
- Made landfall as
a Category 4 near the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Responsible
for 95 deaths and $281 million in damage in the United States, 100
deaths and $100 million in damage in Canada, and an estimated 400 to
1000 deaths in Haiti.
- Connie and
Diane (1955)
- Connie hit the North Carolina
coast as a Category 3. Responsible for 25 deaths and the damage was
estimated at $40 million. Most significant aspect of Connie was the
rainfall that affected the northeastern United States.
- Diane hit the North Carolina
coast as a Category 1 hurricane. Diane
poured rain on areas hit by Connie just a few days before, producing
widespread severe flooding from North Carolina
to Massachusetts.
The floods were responsible were 184 deaths and $832 million in damage.
- 1960-1969
- Donna (1960)
- Category 4 in
Florida Keys followed by eastern North Carolina
(Category 3) and the New England states (Category 3 on Long Island and Categories 1 to 2 elsewhere). Responsible for 50 deaths in the United States.
114 deaths were reported from the Leeward Islands to the Bahamas, including 107 in Puerto Rico caused by flooding from the heavy
rains. The hurricane caused $387 million in damage in the United States.
- Cleo (1964)
- Category 4
hurricane. Responsible for 217 deaths. Damages
were estimated at $128 million.
- 1970-1979
- Agnes (1972)
- Hit Florida
Panhandle coast as a Category 1. Responsible for 122 deaths in the US. 9
in Florida
(mainly from severe thunderstorms) while the remainder were associated
with flooding. Damages were estimated at $2.1 billion, the majority
from the flooding.
- 1980-1989
- Hugo (1989)
- Made landfall
just north of Charleston,
South Carolina
as a Category 4. Responsible for 21 deaths in the US, 5 more in Puerto
Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands, and 24 more elsewhere in the
Caribbean. Damages estimated at $7 billion in the mainland United States and $1 billion in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- 1990-1999
- Fran (1996)
- Category 3
hurricane. Made landfall in North Carolina
and travelled up the Atlantic coast. Responsible for 34 deaths and
approximately $3.2 billion in damages.
- Floyd (1999)
- Hit the North Carolina coast near Cape Fear
as a Category 2 hurricane. Rains, aided by rains from Tropical Storm
Dennis two weeks earlier, caused widespread severe flooding that caused
the majority of the $4.5 billion in damage caused by Floyd. These
floods also were responsible for 50 of the 56 deaths caused by Floyd in
the United States.
Floyd also caused damage in the Bahamas, with one death
reported.
- 2000-2009
- Isabel (2003)
- Category 2
hurricane hit over North
Carolina. Responsible for 17 deaths and $3.4
billion dollars in damages.
- Charley (2004)
- Charley made
landfall on the southwest coast of Florida as a Category 4. Hit South Carolina
as a category 1. Damage is estimated at $15 billion. Responsible for 10
deaths in the US.
- Frances
(2004)
- Made landfall
near Stuart, Florida as a category 2. 8 deaths - seven in the United States and one in the Bahamas.
U.S.
damage is estimated to be near $8.9 billion.
- Ivan (2004)
- Made landfall as
a Category 3 just west of Gulf
Shores, Alabama.
The death toll from Ivan stands at 92 - 39 in Grenada, 25 in the United
States, 17 in Jamaica, 4 in Dominican Republic, 3 in Venezuela, 2 in
the Cayman Islands, and 1 each in Tobago and Barbados. U.S.
damage is estimated at $14.2 billion.
- Jeanne (2004)
- Hit the Florida coast near Stuart, where Frances
had come through three weeks earlier. Made landfall as a Category 3. Rains from the cyclone resulted in historic
floods in Puerto Rico, and deadly flash-floods and mudslides in Haiti,
where over 3000 people lost their lives and roughly 200,000 were left
homeless. Three deaths occurred in Florida,
and one each in Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and Virginia. Damages were estimated to
be $6.9 billion.
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