Costliest US Hurricanes "UP to 2003"....

[Anonymous]

I think that I have the top 12 costliest hurricanes up to today. It may not be right though.

1. Hurricane Andrew- FL/LA - 1992- 26 Billion
2. Hurricane Hugo- SC- 1989- 7 Billion
3. Hurricane Floyd- Mid Atlantic- 1999- 4.5 Billion
4. Hurricane Fran- NC- 1996- 3.2 Billion
5. Hurricane Isabel- NC- 2003- 3 Billion
6. Hurricane Opal- FL- 1995- 2.5 Billion
7. Hurricane Georges- MS/FL- 1998- 2.3 Billion
8. Hurricane Frederic- MS/AL- 1979- 2 Billion
9. Hurricane Agnes- FL/NE COAST- 1972- 1.5 Billion
10. Hurricane Alicia- TX- 1983- 1.3 Billion
11. Hurricane Camille- MS- 1969- 1 Billion
12. Hurricane Lili- LA- 2002- 900 Million

I may be off as the NHC has not yet put out their Isabel total.
Any comments on what you think?

[Derek Ortt]

Some corrections

3. Georges at 5.9 billion in total US damage
4. Allison at 5 billion (actual dollar figure was never determined due to the very long trail of destruction)

Opal was at 3 billion
Isabel was at 2.35 billion
frederick was at 2.3
agnes was at 2.1 billion
iniki was at 1.8 billion
juan was at 1.5 billion

[Anonymous]

Well, I did my best!

[Derek Ortt]

As a note, to get the official list, the damage has ot be corrected to 1990 dollar figures; thus, the 1926 Miami hurricane is officially the most costly on record with an adjusted damage figure of 80 billion, more than 50 billion ahead of andrew

[Anonymous]

I thought Andrew was the costilist storm in US history...

[OtherHD]

Not when you account for inflation...

[Stormsfury]

Not when you account for inflation...

Yep, that was the 1926 Florida hurricane ... adjusted to today's dollars ... Estimated (depending on the source) between $77 and $90 BILLION dollars in damage.

SF

[AussieMark]

As Hurricane stats are a interest of mine I am more than happy to reply to this thread.

These figures are assuming these hurricanes struck in 2000. Identical track size etc etc.

01 - $80.2 Billion - Miami (1926)
02 - $39.9 Billion - Andrew (1992)
03 - $32.1 Billion - Galveston (1900)
04 - $27.2 Billion - Galveston (1915)
05 - $20.3 Billion - SW Florida (1944)
06 - $20.1 Billion - New England (1938)
07 - $16.6 Billion - Lake Okeechobee (1928)
08 - $14.9 Billion - Betsy (1965)
09 - $14.5 Billion - Donna (1960)
10 - $13.2 Billion - Camille (1969)
11 - $12.9 Billion - Agnes (1972)
12 - $12.3 Billion - Diane (1955)
13 - $11.3 Billion - Hugo (1989)
14 - $10.9 Billion - Carol (1954)
15 - $10.0 Billion - FL/AL/LA (1947)
16 - $ 8.5 Billion - Carla (1961)
17 - $ 8.5 Billion - Hazel (1954)
18 - $ 7.8 Billion - New England (1944)
19 - $ 7.6 Billion - SE Florida (1945)
20 - $ 7.6 Billion - Frederic (1979)
21 - $ 7.0 Billion - SE Florida (1949)
22 - $ 6.4 Billion - S Texas (1919)
23 - $ 4.9 Billion - Alicia (1983)
24 - $ 4.7 Billion - Floyd (1999)
25 - $ 4.0 Billion - Celia (1970)
26 - $ 3.7 Billion - Dora (1964)
27 - $ 3.7 Billion - Fran (1996)
28 - $ 3.6 Billion - Opal (1995)
29 - $ 2.9 Billion - Cleo (1964)
30 - $ 2.9 Billion - Juan (1985)

Note: I have rouned these down to 1 decimal point and writen it in $Billions.

[Anonymous]

Well, Isabel is now on that list with roughly 4 billion in damage.

[weatherluvr]

These figures are assuming these hurricanes struck in 2000. Identical track size etc etc.

01 - $80.2 Billion - Miami (1926)

Is this figure actual damage in 2000 dollars, or an estimate of what the cost would be if it hit today? I didn't think Miami was as developed back then.

[AussieMark]

This list takes into affect inflation, population changes etc etc.

That is why i said in the second sentence

"These figures are assuming these hurricanes struck in 2000. Identical track size etc etc."

In my opinion there should be no confusion

[weatherluvr]

The answer was right in the quote. My bad.

[Derek Ortt]

NHC gave a final assessment for Isabel in their season summary, about 2.35 billion in damage, not 4 billion

[Hurricanehink]

Actually, the number the NHC used in its updated November Summary was 3.37 Billion dollars.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, and I think that may STILL be too low. This means a weak category 2 "Isabel", may be and probably will be the third costliest storm ever.

[wxman57]

T.D. Allison caused more damage than Isabel, as it dumped over 30" of rain on downtown Houston in 2001. The damage total was about $5 billion here alone. It doesn't take strong winds to cause significant damage. In 1979, weak T.S. CLaudette dropped over 44" of rain in 24 hours just south of Houston in Alvin. Flooding can cause more damage than winds.

There seem to be a number of "most expensive" lists going around. The NHC has put up an adjusted (to 2000 dollars) list of most expensive storms:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastcost2.shtml?

Andrew tops the list with about $35 billion. But there is no mention of T.S./T.D. Allison on there.

Now that list does not assume that the storms actually hit in 2000, so they do not account for any increased population/development in the affected areas. They only take the amount of dollar damage when the storms hit and adjust the dollar amounts upwards for inflation.

There is another list that does take into account population changes and other factors:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/deadly/Table3A.htm

But that list still doesn't have Allison which pounded southeast Texas in 2001.

[Stormsfury]

wxman57, there's no mention of Allison on that list because the list stops at 2000.

SF

[wxman57]

wxman57, there's no mention of Allison on that list because the list stops at 2000.

SF

They didn't mention that they didn't reduce 2001/2002/2003 storm damage down to 2000 dollars, but you're probably right.

[mitchell]

Something about that stats posted above are strange...surely the 1926 hurricane wouldn't have caused 80 billion dollars in both cases:

1) The actual 1926 damage inflated to 2000 value
2) The same storm actually hit in 2000.

This implies no difference in damage with 75 years more development.

Merry Christmas!