Most Destructive Hurricanes In Recent History

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Hurricane Erin, the first major Atlantic hurricane of the 2025 season, has come and gone. Strengthening into a Category 5 storm on August 16, with winds as high as 160 miles per hour, Hurricane Erin was later downgraded to a Category 2 storm. While the storm’s core remained well off shore, its size and power still posed a significant threat to life and property along the Atlantic Coast.

An unusually large tropical cyclone, Erin was in the 90th percentile of the largest hurricanes recorded in the Western Atlantic. The threat posed by Hurricane Erin prompted North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein to declare a state of emergency and officials to issue evacuation orders impacting thousands living or vacationing in the Outer Banks. Despite steadily weakening, the storm also posed threats of high winds and storm swells to communities along the East Coast, from Virginia to Northern New England and Nova Scotia.

Experts have linked Hurricane Erin’s unusual size and strength to human-caused climate change. According to analysis conducted by Climate Central, a non-profit research organization, warmer ocean and atmospheric conditions made the hurricane’s rapid growth up to 100 times more likely – and increased the storm’s wind speed by an estimated 9 mph, pushing it from a Category 4 hurricane to a Category 5, and making it as much as 50% for destructive.

Because Erin did not make landfall, the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2025 season also did not bring catastrophic destruction. Still, several months remain in this year’s hurricane season, and the same conditions helped fuel Hurricane Erin’s historic size and strength will continue to apply to future storms.

Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Crisis 247 identified the most destructive hurricanes in recent U.S. history. We reviewed data for each of the 67 hurricanes to have caused at least $1 billion in damage, adjusted for inflation, between 1980 and 2024. The nine storms on this list are ranked by the total, inflation-adjusted damage they caused. Only storms that resulted in at least $50 billion in damage were considered. All supplemental data is also from NOAA.

9. Hurricane Andrew

Damage caused by hurricane: $60.5 billion
Deaths attributed to hurricane: 61
Hurricane start and end date: August 23, 1992 - August 27, 1992
Impacted states and territories include: Florida, Louisiana

8. Hurricane Irma

*Photo by Wade Austin Ellis on Unsplash*

Damage caused by hurricane: $64.0 billion
Deaths attributed to hurricane: 97
Hurricane start and end date: September 06, 2017 - September 12, 2017
Impacted states and territories include: Florida

7. Hurricane Helene

*Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash*

Damage caused by hurricane: $78.7 billion
Deaths attributed to hurricane: 219
Hurricane start and end date: September 24, 2024 - September 29, 2024
Impacted states and territories include: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia

6. Hurricane Ida

Damage caused by hurricane: $84.6 billion
Deaths attributed to hurricane: 96
Hurricane start and end date: August 29, 2021 - September 01, 2021
Impacted states and territories include: Louisiana

5. Hurricane Sandy

Damage caused by hurricane: $88.5 billion
Deaths attributed to hurricane: 159
Hurricane start and end date: October 30, 2012 - October 31, 2012
Impacted states and territories include: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island