In 2022, there were 78 fatalities due to hurricanes reported in the United States. Since the beginning of the century, the highest number of fatalities was recorded in 2005, when four major hurricanes – including Hurricane Katrina – resulted in 1,518 deaths. The worst hurricanes in U.S. history Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in August 2005, ranked as the third deadliest hurricane in the U.S. since records began. Affecting mainly the city of New Orleans and its surroundings, the category 3 hurricane caused an estimated 1,500 fatalities. Katrina was also the costliest tropical cyclone to hit the U.S. in the past seven decades, with damages amounting to roughly 186 billion U.S. dollars. Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, both of which made landfall in 2017, ranked second and third, resulting in damage costs of 149 and 107 billion dollars, respectively. How are hurricanes classified? According to the Saffir-Simpson scale, hurricanes can be classified into five categories, depending on their maximum sustained wind speed. Most of the hurricanes that have made landfall in the U.S. since 1851 are category 1, the mildest of the five. Hurricanes rated category 3 or above are considered major hurricanes and can cause devastating damage. In 2021, there were 38 hurricanes recorded across the globe, of which 17 were major hurricanes.

Hurricane Katrina, which hit Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi in 2005, was the deadliest hurricane recorded in mainland United States since 1951. It had a death toll of nearly ***** fatalities. Meanwhile, hurricane Helene, which hit the Southeastern United States in September 2024, was the second deadliest to make landfall in the continental U.S. this century.

The category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Galveston, Texas in 1900 was the deadliest to hit the United States, with a death toll estimated between 8,000 and 12,000. Since 1970, only one U.S. hurricane – namely Katrina, which hit in 2005 – made the ranking, with about 1,200 deaths.

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, leaving widespread destruction in its path. The official death count for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was 64 excess deaths, but that controversial death toll has been debated by a number of academic and independent researcher journalists. With the loss of electrical power and telecommunication systems for much of the island, it was unclear how many deaths in Puerto Rico were an immediate result of Hurricane Maria's destruction as opposed to the access to care conditions that prolonged. Santos-Burgoa et al. applied a time-series analysis of the Puerto Rico Vital Statistics data to estimate the death count over time. To consider how many people died as opposed to emigrated away from Puerto Rico, two counterfactual assumptions were used, a Census-based scenario and a Displacement-based scenario for expected population change. Under the Census scenario and the Displacement scenario, the estimated death counts in Puerto Rico was approximately 1200 deaths and 3000 deaths, respectively, where the Displacement scenario was acclaimed as the preferred model.

Due to copy-right issues, the article and supplementary materials should be accessed at the source website. Please use the following reference citation and doi to redirect there: Santos-Burgoa C, Sandberg J, Suárez E, Goldman-Hawes A, Zeger S, Garcia-Meza A, Pérez CM, Estrada-Merly N, Colón-Ramos U, Nazario CM, Andrade E. Differential and persistent risk of excess mortality from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico: a time-series analysis. The Lancet Planetary Health. 2018 Nov 1;2(11):e478-88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(18)30209-2

In 2023, storms caused nearly ****** deaths across the globe. the third-largest figure recorded since 1990. In the past three decades, the highest annual deathtoll due to storms was registered in 1991, when storm events were responsible for the death of more than *** thousand people worldwide. That year, a massive cyclone hit Bangladesh, becoming one of the deadliest storms of the century. The death count due to storms was also remarkably high in 2008, mainly associated with a cyclone which hit Myanmar in May.

Dataset of tweets about Hurricane Sandy which was the most destructive hurricane in United States history with more than 230 deaths and 75 billion of damages. This dataset were collected from 29th October 2012 to 31st October 2012 using the 3 keywords: “sandy”, “hurricane” and “storm”.In accordance with Twitter's Terms of Service, this file only provides identifiers of tweets in the dataset. In order to "hydrate" those tweet identifiers, or in other words, to collect the actual tweets, you suggest to use our Tweeset tool https://bitbucket.org/amjedbj/tweeset.

During the start of the current decade, the number of reported deaths due to tropical cyclones worldwide amounted to 2,670. The 10-year period with the highest recorded figures was between 2000 and 2009, where 167,300 deaths were reported due to tropical cyclones. Since 1970, almost 800 thousand deaths due to cyclones have been registered across the globe. Meanwhile, the number of tropical cyclones globally has increased continuously in the past half a century.

This statistic shows the ten natural disasters that resulted in the most fatalities in the United States from 1900 and 2016. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina (listed as storm) caused 1,833 fatalities in the United States.

Bangladesh was hit by ***** out of the *** deadliest tropical cyclones recorded in the past half a century. The storm that hit the country in 1970 caused the largest number of deaths in the period, with approximately *** thousand casualties. It was followed by storm Gorsky, which hit the country *** decades later, and caused roughly *** thousand deaths. India also recorded ***** of the top ten deadliest cyclones of the past decades, but with a much lower death toll than the ones seen in neighboring Bangladesh.

As a late season storm, Hurricane Nicole became only the third November hurricane on record to make landfall in Florida. Prior to Nicole, Florida had not seen a November hurricane since Kate in 1985. Originating as a subtropical feature, Nicole had a wide wind field, and impacts were felt far and away from its core. Strong swells in combination with astronomical high tide caused devastating storm surge and coastal flooding along the east central Florida coast. Surge impacts were most notable along the Volusia coast where communities were still recovering from Hurricane Ian. Periods of heavy rainfall across the Saint Johns River basin further aggravated flooding concerns and causing another period of moderate to major flooding at several points along the river.While no direct deaths occurred from Nicole, 4 indirect fatalities were reported from Orange County (5 total indirect deaths, the 5th occurring in Duval County, Florida). The National Centers for Enviornmental Information (NCEI) estimates the damage from Nicole at $1 billion dollars.

In 2024, there were ** hurricanes registered worldwide, up from ** hurricanes a year earlier. This was nevertheless below the average of ** hurricanes per year registered from 1990 to 2022. The years of 1992 and 2018 tied as the most active in the indicated period, each with ** hurricanes recorded. The Pacific Northwest basin recorded the largest number of hurricanes in 2024. Most exposed countries to hurricanes With the Pacific Northwest basin being one of the most active for hurricanes in the world, there is perhaps no surprise that Japan and the Philippines were two of the countries most exposed to tropical cyclones in 2024, both West Pacific nations. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic was the most exposed country in the Atlantic Ocean and ranked first as the most exposed country worldwide during the same year. Effects of tropical cyclones From 1970 to 2019, almost ******* deaths due to tropical cyclones have been reported worldwide. In the past decade, the number of such casualties stood at some ******, the lowest decadal figure in the last half-century. In contrast to the lower number of deaths, economic losses caused by tropical cyclones have continuously grown since 1970, reaching a record high of more than *** billion U.S. dollars from 2010 to 2019.

PI-Provided Abstract: Strong institutions as well as economic development are generally understood to play critical roles in protecting societies from the adverse impacts of natural hazards, such as tropical cyclones. The independent effect of institutions on reducing these risks, however, has not been confirmed empirically in previous global studies. As a storm’s path and intensity influence the severity of the damages and may be spatially correlated with human vulnerabilities, failing to accurately capture the physical exposure in an econometric analysis may result in imprecise and biased estimates of the influence of the independent variables. Here, we develop a novel approach to control for physical exposure by spatially interacting meteorological and socioeconomic data for over one-thousand tropical cyclone disasters from 1979 to 2016. We find new evidence that higher levels of national government effectiveness are associated with lower tropical cyclone mortality, even when controlling for other socioeconomic conditions such as GDP per capita. Within countries, deaths are higher when strong winds are concentrated over areas of the country with elevated infant mortality rates, an indicator of less effective public service delivery. These results suggest that policies and programs to enhance institutional capacity and governance can support risk reduction from extreme weather events.

Extreme heat was the deadliest weather condition in the United States in 2023, resulting in a total of 207 lives lost that year. This was followed by fire weather, having caused 103 fatalities. On the other side of the spectrum, only one life was lost due to ice in the North American country that year.

This layer shows the movement path of Tropical Cyclone 03A. 2013 TC03A formed off the north-east coast of Somalia across the Indian Ocean, moving directly towards the coast of the country in the following days. The storm produced a wind speed of 74 kph (46 mph) and (100-200)mm of rain. It caused heavy rains with flooding and gale force winds in the Somali region of Puntland. The cyclone caused loss of human lives and the destruction of assets including livestock and fishing boats, destroyed numerous settlements, service centers, roads, schools, communication and electrical installations. The most affected areas included, Dangorayo, Bandar Beyla, Garowe and Eyl districts. Other areas affected include the coastal villages in Bari region including Hafun, Iskushuban, Bargal, Qandala and Allula districts. It was estimated that overall, 142,380 persons were affected by the disasters, with 8,523 households being worst hit and 1,435 households having lost all their livestock. It was also reported that there were approximately 80 deaths mostly of children and the elderly who were most vulnerable to hypothermia and exposure. Makeshift structures for pastoralists were conspicuously absent or just frames, likely destroyed or damaged by high winds and rains. Numerous water sources were flooded, no longer serviceable or contaminated in some areas. There were unconfirmed disease outbreaks and contamination of water sources from decaying animal remains. Thousands of livestock were reported dead as a consequence of icy rain, which was noted in the aerial assessment. FAO estimated 800,000 livestock were in the affected area. Anecdotal evidence suggested a less than 10 per cent survival rate for livestock in the hardest hit areas.

Hurricane Matthew, responsible for over 1,000 deaths in Haiti over the past several days, has also likely spread a significant number of new cholera infections. The highly contagious, waterborne disease can kill a person within hours, if not properly treated. Cholera is most often spread through contamination of water with human feces containing the vibrio choleraebacteria.Flooding in storm-affected areas can spread the disease. Damaged sanitation infrastructure can leak sewage into rivers and other water sources. Because the bacteria has a short incubation period, cholera often has an explosive pattern of outbreaks, especially during the rainy season, which lasts from May through October.

Historical settlement patterns have resulted in Australia having most of its major city developments situated on the coastline. Storm tides are a major natural hazard for coastal regions. Severe storms and cyclones contribute 29 per cent of the total damage cost from natural hazards to the Australian community. In 1999 prices, this amounts to A$40 billion during the period 1967 to 1999 (including the cost of deaths and injuries).

A storm surge is an increase in coastal water levels well above the normal high tide. If the storm surge is combined with daily tidal variation, the combined water level is called the storm tide. When the resulting storm tide exceeds the normal tidal range, local beach topography will dictate whether significant coastal inundation will occur.

Case 020 provides focus on Hurricane Floyd which brought heavy rain and flooding to the eastern coast of the United States and was responsible for 68 deaths and $2.5 billion in damages.

Hurricane Floyd has been classified as one of the Significant Weather Events of 1999 (See: "http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/images/99dis.gif")

For more information, see: http://data.eol.ucar.edu/codiac/projs?COMET_CASE_020

This layer shows Somalia Disricts struck by 2013 TC3A. They include, Bossaso, Bandarbeyla, Caluula, Iskushuban, Qandala, Qardho, Garoowe and Eyl District. On 8 November 2013, TC3A formed off the north-east coast of Somalia across the Indian Ocean, moving directly towards the coast of the country during the following days. On November 11, 2013 TC3A struck near the border of the Nugal and Bari regions and caused severe flash flooding. The storm produced a maximum wind speed of 74kph(46mph) and (100-200)mm of rainfall.

2013 TC3A was the deadliest tropical cyclone on record in Somalia, killing more than 162 people. The depression also destroyed over 1,000 houses, displaced tens of thousands of nomads, and killed millions of livestock.

It was estimated that overall, 142,380 persons were affected by the disasters, with 8,523 households being worst hit and 1,435 households having lost all their livestock. It was reported that there were approximately 80 deaths mostly of children and the elderly who were most vulnerable to hypothermia and exposure. Makeshift structures for pastoralists were conspicuously absent or just frames, likely destroyed or damaged by high winds and rains. Numerous water sources were flooded, no longer serviceable and or contaminated in some areas. There were unconfirmed disease outbreaks and contamination of water sources from decaying animal remains. Thousands of livestock were reported dead as a consequence of icy rain, which was noted in the aerial assessment. FAO estimated 800,000 livestock were in the affected area. Anecdotal evidence suggested a less than 10 per cent survival rate for livestock in the hardest hit areas.

In 2024, there were roughly 18,100 reported fatalities caused by natural disaster events worldwide. This was well below the 21st-century average and significantly lower than the fatalities recorded in 2023, which were driven by the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on February and became the deadliest catastrophes in 2023, with nearly ****** reported deaths. Economic losses due to natural disasters The economic losses due to natural disaster events worldwide amounted to about *** billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Although figures in recent years have remained mostly stable, 2011 remains the costliest year to date. Among the different types of natural disaster events, tropical cyclones caused the largest economic losses across the globe in 2024. What does a natural disaster cost? Hurricane Katrina has been one of the costliest disasters in the world, costing the insurance industry some *** billion U.S. dollars. The resilience of societies against catastrophes have been boosted by insurance industry payouts. Nevertheless, insurance payouts are primarily garnered by industrialized countries. In emerging and developing regions, disaster insurance coverage is still limited, despite the need for improved risk management and resilience as a method to mitigate the impact of disasters and to promote sustainable growth.

This layer shows the movement path of 2018 Tropical Cyclone Sagar. Cyclone Sagar made landfall in north-western Somaliland on 19 May, 2018. It was a very rare cyclone in the Gulf of Aden. The storm moved with wind gusts of up to 120 km/hour that delivered a year’s worth of rain to some areas, that is between 150 and 200mm in some parts of the north.

UNICEF was among the first to respond following the powerful tropical cyclone which caused death and widespread destruction in Hargeisa, Somaliland. As per UNICEF reports, some 170,000 were affected by Cyclone Sagar which hit the coast of north-western Somaliland and Djibouti on 18^th May 2018 bringing heavy rains leading to flooding and adverse impacts. On 19^th May 2018, Cyclone Sagar made landfall in western Somaliland, impacting close to 170,000 people, mainly in Awdal region. The floods in the south and the cyclone in the north destroyed crops, destroyed shelters and social service infrastructure, including water, health, nutrition, and education facilities. The Somaliland authorities estimated 50 people died and seven were still missing. In Somaliland, at least 16 people died in Galbeed and Awdal, where the cyclone made landfall. Three quarters of the livestock were killed along with major damage of water systems and health facilities and 39 schools were damaged or destroyed with a major impact on children.

By the end of 2018, more than 5.7 million people required basic health services, including critical needs in maternal and child health.