One Year Ago
This year’s peak hurricane season marks the anniversary of several major tropical storms and hurricanes that have hit numerous states in years past – just last year Tropical Storm Fay began one of the worst storm seasons in U.S. history. Fay hit South Florida on August 18 and became the first storm in recorded history to make landfall in Florida four times, causing more than $560 million in damage. Hurricane Gustav quickly followed, hitting Louisiana on August 31 and causing more than $6.6 billion in damage. Hurricane Ike came shortly after Gustav on September 13, bringing extensive flooding and wind damage throughout the Midwest and as far north as Pennsylvania. Damage from Ike is estimated at $24 billion.

Five Years Ago
The 2004 hurricane season is one Floridians won’t soon forget. The season got a late start with the first storm forming on August 1. Things progressed quickly from there with the development of Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley, both making landfall in Florida within 24 hours of each other. The season brought an additional three storms, Hurricanes Francis, Ivan and Jeanne, to the Sunshine State causing more than $42 billion in total damages.

Ten and Twenty Years Ago
Last year’s hurricanes aren’t the only storms that are still fresh in most people’s minds. Some property owners still remember other devastating hurricanes that struck long ago and resulted in years of costly clean-up and rebuilding. This September marks the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Floyd, which made landfall in North Carolina on September 16, 1999. The storm traveled up the East Coast as a tropical storm and passed over Long Island and into New England, causing record rainfall and flooding across the east coast, with Wilmington, NC and Philadelphia, PA setting 24-hour rainfall records of 15.06 in. and 6.63 in. respectively. Floyd was one of the costliest hurricanes on record, with an estimated $4.5 billion in damage.

Hurricane Hugo marks its twentieth anniversary this year, as it made landfall and caused extensive damage to Charleston, SC on September 21, 1989. By the time it moved up the coastline and reached inland to Charlotte, NC, Hugo was still a Category 3 hurricane and ultimately caused 29 counties in North Carolina to be declared federal disaster areas.Hugo’s storm surge was the highest ever recorded on the East Coast and its 150 mile wide swath resulted in major damage hundreds of miles inland – it caused $7 billion in damage and remains the sixth costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

INFO FROM: info@floodsmart.com

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