The only major storm of the 1983 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Alicia struck Galveston and Houston with 96 mile-per-hour winds and 127 mile-per-hour gusts, causing $2.6 billion ($5.7 billion in 2010 terms) in damage and 21 deaths. Alicia was the worst hurricane to hit Texas in more than 20 years, and it became the first storm in which the National Hurricane Center issued landfall probabilities.
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Hurricane Gilbert, a Cape Verde-type storm, caused an estimated $5.5 billion ($10.1 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and 318 deaths, most of them in Mexico. Gilbert was one of the largest tropical cyclones ever observed in the Atlantic basin, with winds measuring up to 500 nautical miles in diameter.
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Hurricane Hugo hit the Caribbean—Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, and Antigua—before touching down in South Carolina and North Carolina. Hugo caused about $10 billion in damage ($17.5 billion in 2010 dollars), and 82 deaths were reported. According to Allison Dean Love, executive director of the South Carolina Insurance News Service, if Hurricane Hugo made landfall 20 years later, it would have caused $20 billion in damage.
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The only hurricane to make landfall during the 1991 season, Hurricane Bob moved along the Outer Banks before striking New England and Canada. The storm caused $2.1 billion (about $3.4 billion in 2010) in damage and 18 deaths. Even President George H.W. Bush had to get out of the storm’s way; staying at his family’s 26-room seaside home in Kennebunkport, Maine, he took a motorcade out of town, despite joking with reporters that the storm “ wouldn't scare us a bit.”
The third-most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in the 20th century, Hurricane Andrew wreaked havoc throughout the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana, causing $26.5 billion ($41.1 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and 43 deaths. According to the book Florida Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, 117,000 homes in Dade County, Florida, were destroyed or suffered major damage. Slow governmental response didn’t help, either. As Kate Hale, Dade’s emergency management director, proclaimed at a press conference, “Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one? They keep saying we’re going to get supplies. For God’s sake, where are they?”
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Hurricane Opal, the strongest hurricane in the unusually active 1995 season, hit the Florida Panhandle, traveling up through Alabama, before lessening into a tropical storm in Tennessee. Opal caused about $3 billion ($6 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and 59 deaths.
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Hurricane Mitch’s barreling winds—at times, up to 180 miles per hour—hit Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua as a minimal hurricane, before carrying on to Florida as a strong tropical storm. Mitch caused about $6.2 billion ($8 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and between 10,000 and 11,000 deaths, most of them as a result of of severe flooding. The storm was one of Central America’s worst natural disasters ever.
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Hurricane Floyd triggered the third-largest evacuation in U.S. history, forcing 2.6 million coastal residents to flee from their homes in five states. The storm struck the Bahamas hard and then weakened before making landfall in North Carolina and traveling north to New England. Floyd was responsible for 57 deaths and $4.5 billion ($6 billion in 2010 USD) in damage. Heavy criticism of FEMA followed. Jesse Jackson, for example, complained to FEMA Director James Lee Witt on CNN, saying, “It seemed there was preparation for Hurricane Floyd, but then came Flood Floyd. Bridges are overwhelmed, levees are overwhelmed, whole towns under water…[It’s] an awesome scene of tragedy.”
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Tropical Storm Allison devastated Texas, causing about $5.5 billion ($6.77 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and 41 deaths. The deadliest and costliest tropical storm ever to hit the U.S., Allison is also the only tropical storm to have its name retired without reaching hurricane strength.
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Hurricane Charley—at its peak intensity, with 150 mile-per-hour winds—struck Captiva Island in southwest Florida, then headed north toward the Orlando metropolitan area. Charley caused about $16.3 billion ($18.7 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and 10 deaths. Agriculture losses, in particular, were heavy, with the prices of oranges and grapefruits skyrocketing throughout the U.S. “We think the damage is going to be in the hundreds of millions,” Charles Bronson, the Florida commissioner of agriculture, told The New York Times. “It could be a billion or more—we just don’t know yet.”
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Hurricane Ivan wreaked havoc on the Caribbean and the U.S., causing $18 billion ($20.7 billion) in damages, the third largest total on record, and 92 deaths. Most of the deaths were in Grenada and Jamaica, while an additional 25 occurred in the U.S. Alabama reported massive power outages, with up to 489,000 subscribers, roughly half of Alabama Power’s base, without electricity.
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Hurricane Frances struck the Caribbean, smacked down on the Bahamas, and then passed over Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Ohio, and eventually carried on to Canada. The storm caused $12 billion ($13.8 billion in 2010 terms) in damage and seven deaths. Frances even destroyed part of a NASA facility, tearing 1,000 4-by-10-foot aluminum panels off the side of a building. As Jim Kennedy, the director at the Kennedy Space Center, told CNN, “It’s a bump in the road for sure.”
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Hurricane Katrina was the costliest disaster—and one of the five deadliest—in the history of the U.S., causing $81.2 billion ($90.1 billion in 2010 terms) in damages and 1,836 deaths. President George W. Bush called a state of emergency two days before landfall, but it was too late: The storm quickly went on to ravage Louisiana—and New Orleans especially. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation and called Katrina “a storm that most of us have long feared.”
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The most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin—with winds reaching up to 185 miles per hour—Hurricane Wilma made landfall in several locations: Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and Florida. Wilma caused $29.1 billion ($32.3 in 2010 terms) in damage and 22 deaths. The storm provided a rare moment for U.S.-Cuba relations, too, when the latter accepted emergency aid from America. “This was the first time they have accepted an offer of assistance,” U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told NewsMax.com at the time.
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The third costliest storm to hit the U.S., Hurricane Ike was the most intense Atlantic storm of 2008. Ike, which devastated land from Texas to Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle, caused $37.6 billion ($38 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and as many as 50 deaths. It caused the largest evacuation in Texas state history, too, despite about 40 percent of Galveston residents staying put.
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