By the Numbers
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Written by Gary Seidman
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Designed and produced by Lang Kirchheimer
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GALVESTON HURRICANE, Texas 1900
Packing winds estimated at 135 miles per hour and a storm surge of more than 15 feet, the Galveston hurricane is the deadliest natural disaster to strike the United States. It killed at least 8,000 people (possibly as many as 12,000), most of whom drowned or were crushed by surf-pounded debris. Many people who survived the storm died in subsequent days trapped under collapsed buildings.
At the time, Galveston was a boomtown with a population of about 42,000 sitting on a low, flat island on the Gulf of Mexico. The island’s highest natural point was about 8 feet above sea level. Because telegraph lines were cut, word of the disaster took days to reach authorities. The dead were so numerous that funeral pyres were set afire.
Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Sept. 8, 1900, Galveston, Texas
Deaths: 8,000
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: $30 million
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OKEECHOBEE HURRICANE, Florida 1928
The 1928 storm left a trail of destruction and killed as many as 1,200 people in Guadeloupe and 300 in Puerto Rico before striking the United States. Miami -- south of landfall -- suffered little damage. But the 10-foot storm surge ravaged Florida's coast from Pompano Beach to Jupiter.
Because of early storm warnings and memories of the devastating Great Miami Hurricane just two years earlier, the coast death toll was relatively small.
The storm wreaked havoc inland along the well-populated shore of Lake Okeechobee. With winds of 140 mph, the storm breached a dike causing floods that spread over hundreds of square miles. In some places the water was 20 feet deep. A majority of the dead were migrant farm workers. The death count in the United States alone is estimated between 2,500 and 3,000.
Second Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Sept 16, 1928, Florida
Deaths: 2,500
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: $25 million
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HURRICANE KATRINA, Gulf Coast 2005
Katrina was the most financially costly and the third most deadly storm in U.S. history. It formed over the Bahamas in late August and crossed Florida as a Category 1 before picking up strength over the Gulf of Mexico.
When it made landfall again, its storm surge ravaged the Mississippi and Alabama coasts. But the most severe loss of life and property damage was in New Orleans where nearly every levee was breached and 80 percent of the city flooded.
In dollars, the storm is estimated to have cost more than $81 billion in damage. Criticism of the government’s response to the catastrophe was aimed at mismanagement and a general lack of leadership in the relief effort.
Third Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Aug. 29, 2005, Gulf Coast
Deaths: 1,500
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: $81 billion, the most costly hurricane
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HURRICANE AUDREY, Louisiana,Texas 1957
The first named storm, Audrey struck in the early hours of June 27, 1957, a massive early-season hurricane hitting Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. Audrey was the strongest June hurricane to strike the United States, rating a Category 4. Its winds peaked at about 145 mph.
Many of those who perished were caught in the 12-foot storm surge that shoved water as far as 25 miles inland. Some 40,000 people were left homeless.
Fourth Deadliest Hurricane
Date: June 27, 1957, Louisiana & Texas
Deaths: 416
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: $150 million, or about $1 billion in current dollars
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LABOR DAY HURRICANE, Florida 1935
The storm formed near the Bahamas and intensified as it entered the Gulf Stream, aiming at Islamorada in Florida’s upper Keys. The hurricane packed winds of 160 to 185 mph when it made landfall, with a storm surge of 18 to 20 feet.
The vast majority of those who perished were World War I veterans who were employed on a road-building project. Several weeks after the storm, Ernest Hemingway took the government to task for its lack of disaster preparation in an article entitled "Who Murdered the Vets?: A First-Hand Report on the Florida Hurricane."
Fifth Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Sept. 2, 1935, Florida Keys
Deaths: 408
Category: 5
Estimated property damage: $6 million
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GREAT MIAMI HURRICANE, Florida 1926
In the early hours of Sept. 18, 1926, the Category 4 hurricane made landfall between Coral Gables and South Miami. Residents of the region, which was in the midst of a land boom, had little warning when the storm hit with 125 mph winds and a 10 to 15 foot storm surge.
To make matters worse, residents of Miami assumed the worst was over when the eye of the storm passed over the city at about 6 a.m., and many started to return to their homes. But the storm’s calm lasted only a half hour, and the most vicious of the storm’s rage took its toll. The hurricane put an end to the economic boom that had more than doubled the region’s population to over 100,000 during the previous six years.
Sixth Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Sept. 18, 1926, Florida & Gulf Coast
Deaths: 372
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: About $100 billion in current dollars
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GRAND ISLE HURRICANE, Louisiana 1909
The Grand Isle Hurricane struck the island on Sept. 20, 1909, at Berwick on a path of destruction that led to New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Nestled between the Gulf of Mexico and several bays, the island was demolished when the hurricane’s 16 foot storm surge overwhelmed it. Again in 2005, Grand Isle, which is in Parish County, was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Seventh Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Sept. 20, 1909, Louisiana
Deaths: 350
Category: 3
Estimated property damage: $20 million
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FLORIDA KEYS HURRICANE, Florida, Texas 1919
First detected near the Lesser Antilles, the storm headed west-northwest through the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, where it strengthened to a Category 4.
On Sept. 9, 1919, the storm’s center passed through the Florida Keys en route to the Gulf of Mexico and landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas. Though it weakened to a Category 3, it lashed the coast with a 12 foot storm surge. The death toll on land was 287. But it is believed that 600 to 900 people on 10 ships were killed at sea.
Eighth Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Sept. 1919, Florida and Texas
Deaths: 287
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: $22 million
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NEW ORLEANS HURRICANE, Louisiana 1915
Another devastating storm to lash New Orleans and the Louisiana coast began its path of destruction in the waters between Puerto Rico and South America before crossing Mexico’s Yucatan Peninusula and gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico. By then, warnings had been telegraphed from Florida to Louisiana and the hurricane was a Category 4.
At its peak intensity, the storm made landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana and caused severe damage up and down the coast. Its center passed 20 miles west of New Orleans but inflicted severe damage on the levees.
Ninth Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Sept. 29, 1915, Louisiana
Deaths: 275
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: $13 million
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GALVESTON HURRICANE, Texas 1915
Just 15 years after the catastrophic storm that destroyed Galveston and killed over 8,000 people, another destructive hurricane made landfall on the island.
The 1915 storm killed at least 275 and caused about $50 million of damage.
On August 17th, the hurricane, which had weakened to a Category 3, made landfall 25 miles southwest of Galveston packing winds of 95 miles per hour. Galveston had constructed a seawall after the devastation of the 1900 hurricane.
Tenth Deadliest Hurricane
Date: Aug. 17, 1915, Texas
Deaths: 275
Category: 4
Estimated property damage: Undetermined