Charley’s Damage in Context
August 17th, 2004Posted by: Roger Pielke, Jr.
In 1998 Chris Landsea and I published a paper that asked how much damage past hurricanes would cause under contemporary societal conditions (i.e., adjusting for changes in population and wealth.) The table below shows these data updated to 2003. The damage estimates for Charley are not yet in, but the storm will have to result in greater than $11.2 billion in damages to break into the top 15 all time and more than $22.9 billion to break into the top 5.
Top 30 Damaging Tropical Storms and Hurricanes in the continental U.S.
Normalized to 2003 dollars by inflation, personal property increases, and coastal county population changes (1900-2003).
| RANK | HURRICANE | YEAR | CATEGORY | DAMAGE (U.S)) |
| 1. | SE Florida/Alabama | 1926 | 4 | $98,051,000,000 |
| 2. | ANDREW (SE FL/LA) | 1992 | 5 | 44,878,000,000 |
| 3. | N Texas (Galveston) | 1900 | 4 | 36,096,000,000 |
| 4. | N Texas (Galveston) | 1915 | 4 | 30,585,000,000 |
| 5. | SW Florida | 1944 | 3 | 22,870,000,000 |
| 6. | New England | 1938 | 3 | 22,549,000,000 |
| 7. | SE Florida/Lake Okeechobee | 1928 | 4 | 18,708,000,000 |
| 8. | BETSY (SE FL/LA) | 1965 | 3 | 16,863,000,000 |
| 9. | DONNA (FL/Eastern U.S.) | 1960 | 4 | 16,339,000,000 |
| 10. | CAMILLE (MS/LA/VA) | 1969 | 5 | 14,870,000,000 |
| 11. | AGNES (NW FL, NE U.S.) | 1972 | 1 | 14,515,000,000 |
| 12. | DIANE (NE U.S.) | 1955 | 1 | 13,875,000,000 |
| 13. | HUGO (SC) | 1989 | 4 | 12,718,000,000 |
| 14. | CAROL (NE U.S.) | 1954 | 3 | 12,291,000,000 |
| 15. | SE Florida/Louisiana/Alabama | 1947 | 4 | 11,266,000,000 |
| 16. | CARLA (N & Central TX) | 1961 | 4 | 9,587,000,000 |
| 17. | HAZEL (SC/NC) | 1954 | 4 | 9,545,000,000 |
| 18. | NE U.S. | 1944 | 3 | 8,763,000,000 |
| 19. | SE Florida | 1945 | 3 | 8,561,000,000 |
| 20. | FREDERIC (AL/MS) | 1979 | 3 | 8,534,000,000 |
| 21. | SE Florida | 1949 | 3 | 7,918,000,000 |
| 22. | S Texas | 1919 | 4 | 7,253,000,000 |
| 23. | ALICIA (N TX) | 1983 | 3 | 5,501,000,000 |
| 24. | ALLISON (N TX) | 2001 | TS | 5,408,000,000 |
| 25. | FLOYD (NC) | 1999 | 2 | 5,264,000,000 |
| 26. | CELIA (S TX) | 1970 | 3 | 4,526,000,000 |
| 27. | DORA (NE FL) | 1964 | 2 | 4,215,000,000 |
| 28. | FRAN (NC) | 1996 | 3 | 4,201,000,000 |
| 29. | OPAL (NW FL/AL) | 1995 | 3 | 4,068,000,000 |
| 30. | ISABEL (NC) | 2003 | 2 | 3,370,000,000 |