Hurricanes and their Pacific counterparts, typhoons, are a way of life for people along coastal regions in many parts of the world. Their sheer size and brute strength make them an awe-inspiring and fearsome part of nature that cause some of the worst disasters in world. From lost lives to property damage, the worst hurricanes in history leave a wake of destruction that can hardly be forgotten. These following hurricanes are the worst financial disasters, deadliest and strongest the Atlantic basin has ever seen.
– The Costliest Hurricanes
Hurricane Katrina
Anyone who was alive and old enough to comprehend the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans in 2005 will never forget Hurricane Katrina. To date it is the costliest hurricane, in property damage, that has ever struck the US or anywhere in the western hemisphere. Estimates of damage from Katrina’s three landfalls in the US top $75 billion, making it the costliest hurricane in US history. It is also the deadliest hurricane since the 1928 Lake Okeechobee hurricane and the second deadliest in US history with an estimated 1,833 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Katrina began life just southwest of the Bahamas, forming from the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten, an upper-level trough and a tropical wave. It first made landfall on August 25 near Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, a Category 1 storm that quickly moved across south Florida and emerged into the Gulf of Mexico. Three days later on August 28, Katrina strengthened to a Category 5 storm with winds measuring 175 mph and the barometric pressure lowering to 902 millibars. When it made landfall for the second time on August 29 near Burras, Louisiana, it had weakened to a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. Katrina continued north and made its third landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi border.
The majority of the damage caused by Katrina came from flooding and the storm surge. In Mississippi the storm surge exceeded the normal tide level by 25 to 28 feet and in Louisiana by 10 to 20 feet. The surge also overwhelmed the levees that protect New Orleans from flooding, causing them to burst and flood most of the city. Portions of New Orleans are still closed and boarded, the residents relocated after the destruction of their lives, livelihoods and homes.
Hurricane Andrew
The second costliest hurricane in property damage was Hurricane Andrew causing over $26 billion in damage in the US and another $250 million in the Bahamas. Andrew developed slowly as a wave coming off the African coast but did not develop any real strength until it was close to the Bahamas. It struck the islands as a Category 4, weakened to a tropical storm and in the twelve hours between the Bahamas and Florida strengthened to a Category 5, making landfall at Homestead, Florida on August 24, 1992. It was originally classified as a category 4 but ten years later was reclassified as a category 5. After wreaking havoc on south Florida, Andrew emerged into the Gulf of Mexico (Katrina followed this path closely) and continued north to Louisiana where it made a second US landfall as a Category 3 on August 26.
Estimated winds for Andrew have ranged from 146 mph to over 170 mph but these will remain estimates as all of the wind gauges were blown away. Despite a 17 foot storm surge, the majority of the damage to south Florida came from the strong winds. Mobile home parks were leveled (and have not reopened) and trees were decimated, turning them as well as vehicles and anything outdoors into projectiles. The central pressure at the time of landfall was an estimated 922 millibars, established by private barometers across south Florida.
Hurricane Ike
Ike formed as a strong tropical wave coming off of Africa’s coast. It quickly developed into a tropical storm and began causing damage across the Caribbean before turning into the Gulf of Mexico and targeting the Texas coast. By the time the system was completely gone, it had caused an estimated $19.3 billion in property damage as a tropical system, another $1 billion as an extratropical system in the Ohio Valley, 74 deaths in Haiti, 7 deaths in Cuba, 20 deaths in Texas and Arkansas as a tropical system, and 28 deaths in the Ohio Valley as an extratropical system.
Ike began its terrorism of the Caribbean as a Category 4 storm passing over the Turks and Caicos on September 7, 2008. It continued westward as a Category 4 but weakened to a Category 3 as it passed over Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas. Next, Hurricane Ike hit the northeast coast of Cuba, again as a Category 4, passed southwest across the island before briefly heading over open water. On September 9, Ike made a second landfall at Pinar del Rio, Cuba as a Category 1. It then headed into the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico where it strengthened again into a Category 2. It struck near Galveston Bay on September 13, bringing with it 110 mph winds and 15-20 foot storm surge.
– The Deadliest Hurricanes
The Great Hurricane (Hurricane San Calixto II)
The deadliest hurricane on record exceeds in one fell swoop the death toll for any single decade of Atlantic storms. Developing in October of 1780, meteorologists believe winds could have exceeded 200 mph. The Great Hurricane ripped across the Lesser Antilles, Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic with thousands of deaths reported on each island. Besides heavy casualties on land, the hurricane decimated the British and French war fleets.
Though the exact track of the hurricane is unknown, there are eye-witness accounts from survivors of the hurricane. On Barbados, the wind was reportedly so strong it stripped the bark from the trees. All the homes on that island were destroyed, and heavy cannons were moved 100 feet. It is from this account that the wind estimates are based as no modern-day cyclone has produced this effect of stripping bark from trees. On the island of St. Vincent, 584 of the 600 homes were destroyed. On St. Lucia, a ship from the British fleet destroyed the city hospital when it was lifted on top of the hospital. All but two houses were destroyed on the island. On Grenada, 19 Dutch ships were wrecked, and at Martinique, 40 French ships were destroyed. There was also a reported 25 foot storm surge on Martinique. In all, The Great Hurricane caused an estimated 22,000 to 27,000 deaths and was part of an exceptionally deadly hurricane season.
Hurricane Mitch
The second costliest hurricane when measuring human lives was Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Mitch developed in the southwestern Caribbean Sea near Central America. It intensified quickly into a tropical storm within 24 hours and slowly meandered north in the Caribbean gathering strength until it was a monstrous Category 5 with a minimum pressure of 905 millibars on October 26. The storm passed over Swan Island and headed for the coastal islands of Honduras where it made landfall on October 29 as a Category 1 storm. Mitch weakened and meandered north over Central America, finally emerging into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm on November 5. Mitch continued across the Gulf, making landfall and crossing Florida on November 5.
Mitch was devastating for Central America, the equivalent of what Katrina is to New Orleans. The greatest toll came from Mitch’s slow progress northward over Central America, during which time it dumped huge quantities of rain, as much as 36 inches in parts of Honduras, creating mudslides and flooding. There were an estimated 11,000 deaths with another 9,000 people missing, 3 million homeless as well as the heavily damaged infrastructure, croplands and buildings in several countries.
Galveston Hurricane of 1900
Another deadly hurricane was the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Very little is known about how the hurricane originally developed as instruments and tracking systems were not available in 1900. It is known that the system developed into a tropical storm on August 27 and passed over Cuba before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico in a general west-northwest track. By the time the hurricane hit the Texas coast, it was a Category 4 hurricane with a storm surge of eight to fifteen feet. This tidal flooding inundated all of Galveston Island and was responsibility for most of the estimated 8,000 deaths with some estimates as high as 12,000.
– The Strongest Hurricanes
Hurricane Wilma
Not only did Hurricane Wilma cause almost $17 billion in property damage making it one of the costliest hurricanes ever, it shattered hurricane strength records. Wilma was an oddity in a year of bizarre tropical weather. The year 2005 gave us more hurricanes than any other year, as well as the costliest hurricane in Katrina, the strongest hurricane in Wilma, and another of the costliest hurricanes in Rita.
Hurricane Wilma developed in mid-October in the Caribbean Sea south of Jamaica. On October 18 Wilma became a hurricane, intensifying explosively to a Category 5 with estimated wind speeds of 185 mph. Her eye was 2-4 miles wide and the barometric pressure was an amazing 882 millibars, measured by a hurricane hunter aircraft on October 19. Wilma struck Cozumel and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico as a Category 4, and Florida as a Category 3, thankfully sparing land and people her Category 5 wrath.
Hurricane Gilbert
Hurricane Gilbert set lots of records on its rapid-intensification path across the Caribbean to Central America. It was the first Category 5 storm in the Atlantic basin to strike land since Camille in 1969. It was the first hurricane to directly strike Jamaica since 1951. It was the first hurricane whose barometric pressure plummeted as far and as quickly as Gilbert’s did – 70 millibars in 24 hours during the most intense strengthening. Wilma topped that dropping 88 millibars of pressure in just 12 hours.
Hurricane Gilbert formed in the Eastern Caribbean and after a brief stint as a tropical storm, quickly intensified to a major hurricane. It devastated Jamaica on September 12, 1988 with 150 mph winds and nine foot surge. After weakening, Gilbert moved out over open water and reintensified, this time to a Category 5 as it pummeled Grand Cayman with 155 mph winds. At its peak, it had winds of 185 mph and the lowest recorded pressure at that time of 888 millibars.
The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
One of the first known Category 5 hurricanes to hit the US, the Labor Day hurricane followed the path of the other strongest hurricanes in intensifying very quickly. The lowest pressure was 892 millibars making it the strongest hurricane to ever hit the US. After making its first furious landfall in the Keys, it followed Florida’s west coast before coming ashore again, this time as a Category 2, near Cedar Key on Florida’s northwest coast.
