in recent years the u. s has experienced a record number of hurricanes here are some of the deadliest hurricanes in u. s history the galveston hurricane 1900.
this is still the deadliest storm in u. s history at the time the u. s weather bureau was only 10 years old and used primitive methods of tracking storms mostly relying on inconsistent reports from ships in the gulf of mexico they predicted the storm would pass over florida and up to new england but cuba with more sophisticated ways of tracking weather predicted the storm would turn west towards the gulf of mexico and ultimately texas which it did and texas was woefully unprepared for a storm of this magnitude the hurricane destroyed over 3 600 buildings with winds greater than 135 miles per hour survivors said the wind was like thousands of little devils shrieking and whistling it's estimated between six to twelve thousand people were killed the labor day hurricane 1935 the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the u.
s with wind speeds up to 200 miles per hour saw the deaths of over 250 world war one veterans in the early 1930s the u. s government sent hundreds of jobless world war one vets to work on infrastructure projects in key west florida they were housed in poorly built beachfront work camps only a foot or two above sea level in late august 1935 a major storm began brewing off the coast of africa heading across the atlantic the u. s weather bureau which had gotten the galveston hurricane so wrong sought to assure people they were prepared but they weren't once again their estimation of the storm's path was tragically off as was their disaster plan officials had prepared a train to evacuate the veterans but they waited too long to send it as the veterans waited the storm hit obliterating their ramshackle camps up the keys the overseas railway has been wrecked beyond repair and the train which was still miles away was also destroyed winds over 200 miles per hour blew every car off the tracks only the engine remained upright by the end of the storm over half of the 400 veterans had been killed the government later classified their deaths as an act of god the new england hurricane 1938 the deadliest hurricane to hit new england in the 20th century caused 308 million dollars in damage in 1938 that's over 5.
5 billion dollars today the storm had been expected to make landfall in florida but unexpectedly changed directions heading northeast a junior forecaster in the weather bureau flagged the possible shift in direction but was overruled by his superiors as it was late september many people were still at their beach homes enjoying the last days of summer they had no advance warning of the deadly storm the massive hurricane tore through long island connecticut rhode island and massachusetts before dying out over canada the storm killed over 650 people destroyed 4 500 homes and more than 2500 ships and boats all in just one day [Music] hurricane katrina 2005 at the time katrina was the costliest natural disaster in u. s history causing over 125 billion dollars in damage the hurricane spent less than eight hours on land and its strongest winds didn't even reach new orleans the city most devastated by the storm but it didn't matter the city's levee system that was supposed to contain the rising water from lake pontchartrain and lake born broke when the levees first began to fail 20 percent of the city was quickly underwater over the next several days more than 50 levee breaches would occur leaving 85 percent of new orleans flooded and some areas nearly 20 feet under water [Music] the city and the federal government were ill-equipped to respond to the devastating floods tens of thousands of people were trapped 20 000 ultimately sought shelter in the superdome but food shortages and rising temperature made the situation even more dire the storm cost 1 833 people their lives and its damages caused the population of new orleans to drop 29 between 2005 and 2011. hurricane maria 2017 the worst natural disaster in puerto rico's history devastated the island causing death destruction and national chaos what began as a tropical wave intensified into a tropical storm and ultimately a category 4 hurricane by the time it made landfall the storm caused one of the worst blackouts in u.
s history nearly 7 000 homes were still without power a year later the official death toll of the hurricane continues to be a controversy initially the puerto rican government confirmed just 64 deaths additional reporting contradicted that official number with deaths ranging from 500 to over 4 600. the puerto rican government ultimately released data showing that there were nearly 1400 more storm-related deaths between september and december of 2017. current estimates placed the death toll closer to 3 000.
