Ten Most Intense Hurricanes in U.S. History

Hurricanes are nothing new to us in the Southeast and the Gulf. We have had some pretty major hurricanes. At this time most of us think hurricane Katrina is the worst. Officials have not finished surveying the damage yet, so we don’t know what the result of Katrina will be at this moment, only that it has been bad – very bad. My heart goes out to the people in the Gulf who were affected by hurricane Katrina.

Katrina will leave her own devastating legacy. However, I would like to outline some of her predecessors. There have been some pretty devastating hurricanes in the past. Here are the top 10 most intense hurricanes – excluding Katrina:

10. Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo made landfall in South Carolina on September 22, 1989 as a category 4. The pressure was at 934 mb when Hugo made landfall. The total damage was a little over $7 billion. I was 9 years old when Hugo hit South Carolina but I still remember like it was yesterday. We went with out power for like three weeks. The winds were 138 mph when Hugo made landfall in Charleston, SC. We had a 20 foot storm surge on top of high tides. In the last 100 years, Hugo was the most intense hurricane to strike Georgia and the Carolinas. After Hugo 26,000 people were homeless and the total death toll from Hugo was 35.

9. Hurricane Carla
Hurricane Carla made landfall in North and Central Texas on September 11, 1961 as a category 4. The pressure was at 931 mb when Carla made landfall. Carla was the most powerful storm to hit Texas in 40 years. The winds were 120 mph when the eye made landfall near Port O’connor, Texas. Over $300 million in damage was done. Hurricane Carla claimed a total of 43 lives.

8. New Orleans, La (Unnamed Hurricane)
The New Orleans hurricane made landfall in 1915 as a category 4. The pressure was at 931 mb when the New Orleans hurricane made landfall. The New Orleans hurricane claimed 275 lives. The cost of damage is unknown. I have researched this hurricane and can’t find much on it.

7. Hurricane Donna
Hurricane Donna made landfall in Southern Florida on Sept. 10, 1960 as a category 4. The pressure was at 930 mb when Donna made landfall. Donna’s sustained winds were 135 mph with gusts to 175mph. After hitting South Florida, Donna turned and crossed the Florida Peninsula and headed north along the east coast making her mark on every state fro South Carolina to New York with hurricane force winds. By the time hurricane Donna slammed into New England, hurricane Donna was packing winds of 135 mph. Donna crossed Long Island with an eye 100 miles wide. Donna roamed the Atlantic coast for a total of 17 days. The damages were estimated around 300 million dollars. 50 people were left dead.

6. Hurricane Lake Okeechobee, FL
Lake Okeechobee, FL hurricane made landfall On Sept. 16, 1928 as a category 4. The pressure was at 929 mb when the Lake Okeechobee, FL hurricane made landfall. Lake Okeechobee, FL hurricane claimed an estimated 3,700 lives in all. The estimated damages were around 100 million dollars. Winds were around 150 mph.

5. Hurricane Florida Keys
The Florida Keys hurricane made landfall in September of 1919 as a category 4. The pressure was at 927 mb when it made landfall. The Florida Keys hurricane claimed an estimated 1,000 lives. Around 500 of those were killed on ships. Damages were estimated at $22 million.

4. The Indianola, Texas hurricane
The Indianola, Texas hurricane made landfall in 1886 as a category 4. The pressure was at 925 mb when the Indianola, Texas hurricane made landfall. It claimed an estimated 43 lives. It is said that the town was never rebuilt. The whole town was wiped out.

3. Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew made landfall on August 24, 1992 as a category 5. The pressure was at 922 mb when hurricane Andrew made landfall. More than 250,000 people were left without homes and 82,000 businesses were destroyed or damaged. Damages totaled to about $25 billion. After hurricane Andrew slammed into south Florida it continued on northwest to the gulf of Mexico striking the Louisiana coastline.

2. Hurricane Camille
Hurricane Camille made landfall on August 17, 1969 as a category 5. The pressure was at 909 mb when Camille made landfall. Hurricane Camille was packing winds of 200 mph and the storm surge was around 20 feet high. It made landfall in the Mississippi and Louisiana coast. Damages were estimated to be around $1,420,700,000. Hurricane Camille claimed 5, 256 lives.

1. The Labor Day Hurricane
The Labor Day hurricane is the most intense hurricane ever recorder in history. The Labor Day hurricane made landfall on September 2, 1935 as a category 5. The pressure was at 892 mb when The Labor Day hurricane made landfall. An estimated 408 lives were lost when The Labor Day hurricane hit. It was packing winds of 160 – 200 mph and the storm surge was over 20 feet high. Damages were estimated at $6 million. The Labor Day hurricane made landfall in the Florida Keys.

These ten storms are said to have been the top ten most intense hurricanes before Katrina hit last week. By all accounts so far, Katrina will make them all look like minor thunder storms, in terms of overall damage and lives lost.