26 photos of the worst hurricanes to have hit the US

Business Insider

19 hours ago

Over the past 100-plus years, the United States has been hit by some of its worst hurricanes.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused $125 billion in property damage.
Hurricane Helene brought catastrophic rainfall to North Carolina, causing flooding and landslides.
Hurricane season is here.
As people in hurricane-prone states like Florida and Louisiana start to prepare to face whatever storm might come their way between June 1 and November 30, there are lessons they can learn from storms past, including what to pack in a go-bag and how best to protect their home.
Hurricanes have been well documented in the southeastern US since the 1800s, and for the past 100 years, we've been able to see the impact they have left on affected communities.
These 26 pictures show the worst hurricanes that have hit the US through history.
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 was, and still is, the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States.
The hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900, as a Category 4 hurricane.
An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people were killed by the hurricane, according to History.com, making it the nation's deadliest storm, even 120 years later.
A large section of Galveston was destroyed by the storm.
Two of the reasons the hurricane resulted in such a high death toll were the lack of any warning and the high storm surge of 8 to 15 feet.
The hurricane destroyed 3,600 homes, Fox 13 News reported. It caused the equivalent of more than $640 million worth of damage in today's dollars.
The Miami Hurricane of 1926 crippled Florida for decades.
There was little warning of the approaching hurricane, according to the National Weather Service. Citizens of Miami who didn't realize the storm was still ongoing left their homes as the hurricane's eye passed over and skies cleared. However, the eye is the center of the storm, so what followed resulted in more death and destruction.
In total, 372 people died, over 6,000 people were injured, and the property damage totaled $164 billion in today's dollars.
The Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 was the second-deadliest hurricane to hit the US.
In 1928, the hurricane made landfall as a Category 4 storm that claimed between 1,770 to 2,300 lives in central Florida. Winds from the storm blew water from Lake Okeechobee into a storm surge that reached 6 to 10 feet high and spilled into nearby cities. Homes, roads, and businesses were flooded, and over 1,000 people drowned.
The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane is one of four in US history that have made landfall as a Category 5 storm.
"People were picked up and thrown around like rag dolls," Brad Bertelli, curator of the Keys History & Discovery Center in Islamorada, told the Sun Sentinel. "Bodies were blown all the way across Florida Bay to Cape Sable."
The winds were so powerful that they swept an 11-car passenger train off its tracks.
USA Today reported the hurricane destroyed the railroad tracks that connected the Florida Keys to the mainland.
Among the victims were World War I veterans working on a highway, according to the World Digital Library. They were waiting for a rescue train to evacuate, but the winds derailed it before it ever arrived.
Hurricane Camille had the highest speeds of any hurricane to hit the US when it made landfall in 1969.
Winds reached an estimated 190 miles per hour as the storm moved across Mississippi. Maximum sustained winds are unknown because the hurricane destroyed all the wind-recording instruments in the area, according to Geology.com.
Camille is another of the four Category 5 hurricanes that made landfall in the US, the National Weather Service reported.
In the days following Camille, fresh water was scarce for survivors.
In the photo, 11-year-old Carl Wright can be seen drinking from a broken pipe amid the rubble of his father's gas station in Gulfport, Mississippi.
In the aftermath, citizens tried to return to everyday activities.
Though they tried, it was difficult. The National Weather Service reported a storm surge of 24.6 feet hit the town.
When it hit Florida, Hurricane Andrew had winds strong enough to blow this sailboat ashore.
Andrew was a Category 5 hurricane that struck southern Florida and south-central Louisiana. According to Geology.com, Andrew's wind speeds were estimated at 167 miles per hour, but like Camille, the instruments were destroyed, leaving its exact speed unknown.
Andrew negatively impacted both the economy and the environment of Florida.
The storm pulled up many large trees. Almost a third of the pine trees in Everglades National Park were badly damaged by the winds.
In the aftermath of the storm, 250,000 people were left homeless, and 82,000 businesses were destroyed or damaged.
The damage caused by Andrew totaled $26.5 billion.
The National Park Service reported Andrew was the most expensive storm of its time, until it was overtaken by Hurricane Katrina 15 years later.
Hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm to make landfall in the US, claimed more than 1,800 lives.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Katrina and its aftermath killed 1,833 people.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast and Louisiana were ravaged by the deadly storm, and property damage caused by the storm reportedly totaled over $125 billion.
The storm surge from the hurricane breached the levees in New Orleans, causing mass flooding across the city. Nearly 80% of the city was underwater, with levels being so high in certain areas like St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward that people climbed to their attics and rooftops.
Thousands of people took shelter in New Orleans' Superdome.
The mayor of New Orleans designated the stadium as a "shelter of last resort" for people the day before Katrina hit, according to the History Channel. Almost 10,000 people sought shelter at the Superdome, and another 15,000 were accepted after the storm hit.
In the days that followed the storm, supplies remained limited as the occupants waited for evacuation. The government was criticized by many for a slow reaction to the storm.
In the aftermath of Katrina, water had to be pumped out of flooded areas.
When it hit in 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused $70 billion in damage and killed 285 people.
Several fires broke out because of the storm.
The winds were so strong that it pushed the Star Jet roller coaster off its pier.
In 2017, Hurricane Harvey caused $125 billion worth of damage in Houston.
The Texas Tribune reported that extreme flooding and strong winds caused billions of dollars of property damage. According to the Office for Coastal Management, Harvey was the deadliest storm to hit Texas since 1919 — 68 people died during the storm.
Harvey impacted Texas' economy, making for a slow recovery in parts.
Hurricane Maria hit the US territory of Puerto Rico in 2017, knocking out the power grid and causing widespread flooding.
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and the Caribbean as a Category 4 storm less than two weeks after Hurricane Irma and a month after Hurricane Harvey.
With wind gusts up to 155 miles per hour, it was the third-strongest storm to make landfall in the US, according to World Vision.
The hurricane likely killed thousands, even though the original death toll was reported to be 64.
The official death toll from Hurricane Maria was originally reported as 64. In a 2018 report submitted to Congress requesting $139 billion in federal aid, the government of Puerto Rico quietly acknowledged a higher death toll of 1,400. A 2018 Harvard study estimated that the hurricane actually caused 4,645 deaths due to lack of medical care and loss of basic utilities caused by power outages.
The storm caused the largest power blackout in US history and the second-largest in the world, CNN reported.
Hurricane Ian pummeled southwest Florida in 2022, with winds at nearly Category 5 speeds.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference in Tallahassee that the storm "could make landfall as a Category 5" with winds 157 mph or higher.
Hurricane Ian remained just short of the Category 5 hurricane threshold, making landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida with 150 mph winds and destructive flooding with over a foot of rainfall in one day.
An official from Lee County, Florida, told USA Today reporter Kate Cimini that the community "has been, in some respects, decimated" in the wake of the storm.
The hurricane caused catastrophic flooding, widespread blackouts, and shut down airports.
More than 2.6 million homes in southwest Florida experienced blackouts due to the storm, according to PowerOutage.us.
The Florida Department of Transportation announced on Monday that Tampa Bay International Airport and the St. Pete/Clearwater International Airport were suspending operations due to the storm. The Orlando International Airport also canceled all of its commercial flights starting on Wednesday, and the Jacksonville International Airport announced the cancellation of all its Thursday flights.
In 2024, Hurricane Helene became the deadliest storm to hit the US mainland since Katrina.
The Category 4 hurricane made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region with winds of over 140 mph, as reported by the Florida Climate Center.
The storm then went into the South Appalachians, where North Carolina communities were greatly affected.
In Asheville, streets were completely flooded, and people saw intense damage to public infrastructure like roads and hospitals, heightening the crisis situation.
The Appalachian communities saw rivers overflowing thanks to the historic rainfall.
Of Helene's death count, over 100 occurred in North Carolina, which was hit particularly hard by the flooding, as reported by The Weather Channel.
Landslides also occurred during the storm, leading to the destruction of communities in the western part of the state.
In total, Helene is estimated to have caused $78 billion in damages.