Top Ten Deadliest Hurricanes to Strike the USA

Hurricanes can be very deadly. Many deaths come from drowning when the ocean storm surge inundates the coastline and people have not evacuated. Then, as you move further inland, flooding from rains is another deadly killer, again usually from drowning and people driving through high water and being swept away.  High winds from the storm themselves or tornadoes spawned by the hurricane bring down thousands of trees that can also be deadly with houses and cars being impacted, crushing people.

See the list below of the top ten hurricanes from a “death perspective” in the modern era. Hurricane Helene will definitely be in the top five before all the recovery operations are over. It may be called “search and rescue” but at this point it is most likely a recovery operation.

Hurricane Maria (2017); 2,975 deaths

Landfall location and date: Southeast Puerto Rico; Sept. 20

Intensity at landfall: Category 4; 155 mph winds

Territories most affected: Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands

Maria was the most destructive hurricane in Puerto Rico in modern times. Nearly the entire island lost power, cellphone service and clean drinking water due to the extreme wind, storm surge and flooding from up to 38 inches of rain. Many remained without electricity for more than three months. More than 300,000 homes were destroyed by the combination of Maria and Hurricane Irma, which passed near Puerto Rico two weeks earlier. The storm’s official death toll in Puerto Rico was estimated by a statistical study that analyzed death records and expected mortality rate.

Hurricane Katrina (2005); 1,392 deaths

Hurricane Katrina

Landfall location and date: Southeast Louisiana, Aug. 29

Intensity at landfall: Category 3; 125 mph winds

States most affected: Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia

Katrina was an unusually large hurricane with hurricane-force winds that extended 120 miles from the eye of the storm. Most of the more than 1,000 deaths in Louisiana and over 200 deaths in Mississippi were because of flooding from storm surge, which is the rise in ocean water over normally dry land. Numerous levees and flood walls were breached in the New Orleans area, where thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, while entire coastal communities in Mississippi were obliterated.

Hurricane Audrey (1957); More than 500 deaths

Hurricane Audrey

Landfall location and date: Southwest Louisiana; June 27

Intensity at landfall: Category 3; 125 mph winds

States most affected: Louisiana, Texas

Audrey was the earliest major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) to make landfall in the United States. The U.S. Weather Bureau warned late on June 26 that the storm would make landfall the next afternoon, but it sped up during the night and arrived at 9:30 a.m. local time, too soon for many people to evacuate. The storm battered much of Louisiana and southeast Texas with damaging winds and a massive storm surge on the coast. The exact number of deaths is unknown because many missing people were never found.

Landfall location and date: Southwest Mississippi, Aug. 17

Hurricane Camille

Intensity at landfall: Category 5; 175 mph winds

States most affected: Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia

Camille is one of only four Category 5 hurricanes, and the second strongest on record, to strike the United States. Winds gusted to 100 mph across much of southern Mississippi and the storm surge on the coast reached 25 feet. Southeast Mississippi, Dauphin Island and the Alabama coastline, including the Mobile area, suffered the most damage. More than 100 of the deaths occurred in Virginia, where the storm dumped more than 1 to 2 feet of rain despite having weakened to a tropical depression.

Hurricane Diane (1955); About 200 deaths

Hurricane Diane

Landfall location and date: Southeast North Carolina, Aug. 17

Intensity at landfall: Category 1; 74 mph winds

States impacted most: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts

Diane’s storm surge damaged houses, flooded roads and destroyed sea walls along the southeast North Carolina coast. The storm dumped up to 20 inches of rain in two days, leading to destructive flooding in eastern Pennsylvania, northwest New Jersey, southeast New York and southern New England. Diane followed just days after another Category 1 storm, Hurricane Connie, killed 74 people mostly because of flooding in the same region.

Superstorm Sandy (2012); 159 deaths

Super Storm Sandy

Landfall location and date: Southeast New Jersey; Oct. 29

Intensity at landfall: Category 1; 80 mph winds

States impacted most: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut

Sandy’s highest storm surge and most severe flooding occurred in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, including coastal areas of New York City. It was an unusually large storm that spread strong winds as far west as Wisconsin and north into Canada, and raised water levels along the entire East Coast. At the time of landfall, the storm was no longer classified as an official hurricane by the National Hurricane Center because it had lost its tropical characteristics. That led to the storm becoming known as “Superstorm Sandy.”

Hurricane Ian (2022); 156 deaths

Hurricane Ian

Landfall location and date: Southwest Florida; Sept. 28

Intensity at landfall: Category 4; 150 mph

States affected most: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina

Ian rapidly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico, briefly reaching Category 5 status with winds of 161 mph, then weakened slightly before landfall. The storm unleashed a destructive storm surge, damaging winds and severe flooding across much of central and northern Florida where rain totals reached 10 to 16 inches in six to 12 hours. More than 19,000 structures in Lee County, home to Fort Myers, were destroyed or severely damaged. The storm then emerged off Florida’s east coast into the Atlantic before making another landfall as a Category 1 in northeast South Carolina.

Hurricane Harvey (2017); 103 deaths

Hurricane Harvey

Landfall location and date: Middle Texas coast; Aug. 25

Intensity at landfall: Category 4; 130 mph winds

States impacted most: Texas, Louisiana

After making landfall, Harvey stalled over southeast Texas for days, unloading historic rainfall totals of 30 to 50 inches in the Houston area and up to 60 inches to the east near Port Arthur, Tex. — the most rain on record from a tropical cyclone in the United States. Catastrophic flooding damaged or destroyed more than 200,000 homes and businesses, and there were more than 17,000 rescues. Harvey eventually drifted offshore and made another landfall near Cameron, La., on Aug. 30, dumping 20 to 40 inches of rain in southwest Louisiana.

Hurricane Agnes (1972); 128 deaths

Hurricane Agnes

Landfall location and date: Florida Panhandle; June 19

Intensity at landfall: Category 1; 75 mph

States impacted most: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, D.C., Delaware

Agnes quickly weakened as it made landfall, causing minimal damage from wind and storm surge along the Florida Panhandle coast. However, the storm spread heavy rain inland across the southeast United States, then re-intensified to a tropical storm and, together with another weather system, deluged the Mid-Atlantic with up to 19 inches of rain. Most of the storm’s damage and deaths were due to catastrophic flooding in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia.

Hurricane Hazel (1954); 95 deaths

Hurricane Hazel

Landfall location and date: Near North Carolina-South Carolina border; Oct. 15

Intensity at landfall: Category 4; 125 mph

States impacted most: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York

Hazel remains the strongest hurricane to make landfall in North Carolina. The storm came ashore close to the border with South Carolina, whipping the coast with winds as high as 150 mph and a storm surge that destroyed every pier along a 170-mile stretch of coast. More than 50,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in North Carolina with the greatest damage occurring in Brunswick County. In South Carolina, Myrtle Beach and Garden City were severely damaged. Strong winds, heavy rain and flooding reached all the way north to Ontario, Canada.

The information above was sourced from NOAA, FEMA, Hurricanes: Science and Society and news reports. All death counts are approximate due to inherent uncertainties in confirming deaths and in linking deaths to indirect storm impacts.

Information above was extracted from this Washington Post article Helene has become one of the deadliest hurricanes of the modern era