Hurricanes are a display of nature’s fearsome power. Anyone who has lived through a strong hurricane can tell you that these storms can wreak an emotional and financial toll on those in the tempest’s path.
Some hurricanes that have made landfall in the U.S. have been especially fierce. Widespread damage from major storms has gotten worse as the population has grown and more Americans have crowded along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Here are the costliest tropical cyclones to ever hit the U.S., according to data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. All costs estimates have been adjusted to 2024 dollars, but NOAA’s analysis did not include 2024 storms like Helene and Milton — the total cost of which may not be known for weeks or even months to come.
1. Katrina
Estimated total costs of this storm: $200 billion
Hurricane Katrina was a 2005 storm that first struck Florida as a relatively mild Category 1 hurricane. Later, it entered the Gulf of Mexico and strengthened, at one point reaching the level of a Category 5 storm. It weakened to Category 3 before making landfall but still went on to devastate Louisiana and Mississippi.
The storm caused major damage and a number of fatalities. It also famously flooded much of New Orleans when levees broke. Katrina moved fast over land, which kept rainfall totals lower than they might otherwise have been as it moved into the central U.S.
2. Harvey
Estimated total costs of this storm: $158.8 billion
Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas in late August 2017 near Port Aransas. The Category 4 storm poured down large amounts of rain, leading to flash flooding in Harris County. Rivers rose rapidly and drainage issues led to widespread flooding and damage.
The storm moved offshore a couple of times and made three landfalls, the last of which was near Cameron, Louisiana.
3. Ian
Estimated total costs of this storm: $118.5 billion
Hurricane Ian was a Category 4 storm that barreled into Florida and North Carolina in late September 2022. Initially, it crashed into Florida, causing large amounts of damage in the Fort Myers area before cutting a path across the state.
It then entered the Atlantic Ocean and made a second landfall as a Category 1 hurricane along the South Carolina coast. It caused devastating flooding in eastern North Carolina.
4. Maria
Estimated total costs of this storm: $114.3 billion
Hurricane Maria did not make landfall in the mainland U.S. when it raced across the Atlantic Ocean in 2017, but it did crash into the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in September as a strong Category 4 storm.
Massive flooding damaged the capital, San Juan, destroying whole neighborhoods. Hundreds of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed.
5. Sandy
Estimated total costs of this storm: $88.5 billion
Hurricane Sandy — also known as Superstorm Sandy — weakened to a post-tropical cyclone before it made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey, in October 2012. Officially a Category 1 storm, the drop in strength did not prevent it from doing large amounts of damage in a highly populated area of the U.S.
At its peak, the massive storm measured more than 900 miles in diameter.
6. Ida
Estimated total costs of this storm: $84.6 billion
In late August 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm near Port Fourchon in the southeastern part of Louisiana. Damage was extensive.
As Ida moved into the interior of the U.S., it caused heavy rain, including deadly flooding in the Northeast.
7. Irma
Estimated total costs of this storm: $63.5 billion
In early September 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall at Florida’s Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 storm and then weakened to Category 3 as its center reached Marco Island. The storm then continued through central and northern Florida.
About three-quarters of residents in South Florida lost power during the storm, many for up to a week or more.
8. Andrew
Estimated total costs of this storm: $60.2 billion
Nobody who lived through Hurricane Andrew will ever forget the storm’s fury. The Category 5 hurricane blasted into South Florida in September 1992, making landfall near Homestead, just south of downtown Miami.
Hurricane Andrew later moved into the Gulf of Mexico and made a second landfall as a Category 3 storm near Point Chevreuil in Louisiana.
9. Ike
Estimated total costs of this storm: $43.2 billion
Hurricane Ike made landfall as a Category 2 storm near Galveston, Texas, in mid-September 2008. Although nowhere near as fearsome as the legendary 1900 Galveston hurricane, Ike was big enough to create a destructive and deadly storm surge along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
The damage from the surge placed the storm among the costliest in history.
10. Ivan
Estimated total costs of this storm: $33.8 billion
In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan made landfall as a Category 3 storm a little west of Gulf Shores, Alabama. It caused widespread damage that exceeded that of earlier hurricanes such as Frederic in 1979 and Opal in 1995.
Only a 1926 hurricane that plowed into counties east of Mobile Bay rivaled Ivan in terms of impact in the area.
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