FAMOUS HURRICANES OF THE 20th CENTURY IN US

[chadtm80]

1. THE GREAT GALVESTON TEXAS HURRICANE DISASTER

* September 8-9, 1900
* Galveston, Texas
* 6,000 deaths (ranges up to 10,000 - 12,000)
* category 4 at landfall
* pressure 27.49" (931 mb) at landfall
* damage $150 million
* greatest U.S. weather disaster on record

2. THE LAKE OKEECHOBEE FLORIDA CATASTROPHE

* September 16, 1928
* South Florida (especially Lake Okeechobee area)
* 1836 deaths
* category 4 at landfall
* pressure 27.43" (929 mb) at landfall
* damage $32 million

3. THE GREAT FLORIDA KEYS LABOR DAY STORM

* September 3, 1935
* Florida Keys
* 423 deaths
* category 5 at landfall
* pressure 26.35" (892 mb) at landfall
* damage ?
* the most intense hurricane to strike the U.S. on record
* first hurricane to reach category 5 at landfall in the U.S.

4. THE GREAT LONG ISLAND/NEW ENGLAND HURRICANE

* September 21, 1938
* Long Island New York/New England
* 600 deaths
* category 3 at landfall
* pressure 27.94" (946 mb) at landfall
* damage $306 million

5. HURRICANE "CAROL"

* August 31, 1954
* Long Island New York/New England states
* 60 deaths
* category 3 at landfall
* pressure 28.35" (960 mb) at landfall
* damage $461 million

6. HURRICANE "EDNA"

* September 11, 1954
* Extreme eastern New England
* deaths ?
* category 3 at landfall
* pressure 28.17" (954 mb) at landfall
* damage ?

7. HURRICANE "HAZEL"

* October 15, 1954
* South Carolina/North Carolina north to Pennsylvania
* 95 deaths
* category 4 at landfall
* pressure 27.70" (938 mb) at landfall
* damage $281 million
* record three major hurricanes in a row to strike the U.S. in less than two months

8. HURRICANE "DIANE"

* August 17, 1955
* North Carolina/northeast U.S.
* 184 deaths
* category 2 at landfall
* pressure 28.02" (949 mb) at landfall
* damage $831 million
* most deaths were due to devastating floods in the northeast U.S.

9. HURRICANE "AUDREY"

* June 27, 1957
* southwest Louisiana
* 400-500 deaths
* category 4 at landfall
* pressure 27.91" (945 mb) at landfall
* damage $150 million
* deadliest hurricane in June on record in the U.S.

10. HURRICANE "DONNA"

* September 10, 1960
* Florida
* 50 deaths
* category 4 at landfall
* pressure 27.46" (930 mb) at landfall
* damage $387 million

11. HURRICANE "CARLA"

* September 11, 1961
* Texas (remnants tracked to near Chicago)
* 46 deaths
* category 4 at landfall
* pressure 27.49" (931 mb) at landfall
* damage $408 million
* dumped about 4 inches of rain at Milwaukee September 12-13

12. HURRICANE "BETSY"

* September 8-9, 1965
* southeast Florida/southeast Louisiana
* 75 deaths
* category 3 at landfall
* pressure 27.99" (948 mb) at landfall
* damage $1.4 billion
* first hurricane to inflict billion dollar damage

13. HURRICANE "BEULAH"

* September 20, 1967
* South Texas
* 15 deaths
* category 3 at landfall
* pressure 28.05" (950 mb) at landfall
* damage $350 million
* produced record 118 tornadoes by a hurricane across South Texas (most were weak)

14. HURRICANE "CAMILLE"

* August 17-19, 1969
* Mississippi/southeast Louisiana northeast to Virginia
* 256 deaths
* category 5 at landfall
* pressure 26.84" (909 mb) at landfall
* damage $1.4 billion
* remnants dumped 27 inches of rain in less than 24 hours in Virginia
* the second most intense hurricane on record at landfall
* only the second hurricane to reach category 5 at landfall in the U.S.
* nearly half the deaths were due to catastrophic flooding in the Appalachians

15. HURRICANE "AGNES"

* June 19-22, 1972
* Florida panhandle/northeast U.S.
* 122 deaths
* category 1 at landfall
* pressure 28.86" (977 mb) at landfall
* damage $2.1 billion
* most deaths were due to catastrophic flooding in New York/Pennsylvania

16. HURRICANE "HUGO"

* September 21, 1989
* South Carolina
* 21 deaths
* category 4 at landfall
* pressure 27.58" (934 mb) at landfall
* damage $7 billion
* the second most costliest hurricane on record in the U.S.

17. HURRICANE "ANDREW"

* August 24-26, 1992
* southeast Florida/southern Louisiana
* 23 deaths
* category 5 at landfall
* pressure 27.23" (922 mb) at landfall
* damage $26.5 billion
* the most costliest hurricane on record in the U.S.
* the third most intense hurricane at landfall to hit the U.S.

18. HURRICANE "FRAN"

* September 5-6, 1996
* North Carolina/Virginia north to Pennsylvania
* 27 deaths
* category 3 at landfall
* pressure 28.17" (954 mb) at landfall
* damage $3.2 billion
* the third most costliest hurricane on record in the U.S.

[isobar]

Wow, what a list! Check out '54-'55. The Atlantic coast took a serious beating! Carol, Edna, Hazel, Diane.

[isobar]

Donna also has the distinction of maintaining hurricane status not only while crossing the FL peninsula, but also while skirting the entire east coast, making multiple landfalls. Only in New England did she fall below a cat 3. An amazing storm track!

[ColdFront77]

Notice how common September hurricanes are. The occassional June through August storms have occurred, too... so there are variables and then remember what happened last year, record amount of named storms in one month; including the first year subtropical storms were named.

[Aslkahuna]

Miami Hurricane should be there as well. Estimates are that a repeat would result in damage costs equal to that of the current war in Iraq.

Steve

[isobar]

You're right Steve. I believe that was a cat 4.

[Stormsfury]

Miami Hurricane should be there as well. Estimates are that a repeat would result in damage costs equal to that of the current war in Iraq.

Steve

Exactly, Steve ... adjusted to today's dollars, it would easily push Andrew into second with an astonishing $78-82 billion dollar price tag...

[Guest]

Forgot Gloria as well..... ....This was a Billion dollar storm in 85...And i think the costliest to that point????

[photopete]

Camille at #14? Come on! You can still see the effects of Camille in Pass Christian some 33 years later.

[isobar]

Yep photopete, she was a monster. And she would rank right up there, however this list is in chronological order.

[Anonymous]

I am assuming the list stops at 1996. If it was extended to the present, Georges and Floyd would(should) be listed as well.

[Rainband]

We made add another to the list this year

Johnathan

[Anonymous]

We made add another to the list this year

Johnathan

The list will not ever be added on. It is complete.

hint hint its the top hurricanes of the 20th century. So if we were to see a very destructive US hurricane this year, it would be the first for the 21th century list I guess, unless you count TS Allison.

[Derek Ortt]

Gloria does not belong. It was a category 1 hurricane at landfall that was not even the costliest of 1985, much less up to that point. It ranked about #7 at the time (behind Betsy, Camielle, Agnes, Frederick, Alicia, Elena)