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| Timeline: U.S. Storm Disasters |
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1635-1935 | 1938-1996
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1938 |
September 21: A devastating hurricane drives through the northeastern United States. Residents are unprepared for the storm and the flooding it brings. Over 600 people are killed, most by drowning. Another hundred are never found. Property damage is estimated at $300 million -- over 8,000 homes are destroyed, 6,000 boats wrecked or damaged. Yet the hurricane does not receive much media attention; Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler in Europe dominates headlines before and after the storm. |
1940 |
The Weather Bureau is relocated from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Commerce. |
1946 |
 April 1: An earthquake in Alaska triggers a wave of energy that eventually forms into a tsunami that hits Hawaii. One hundred and fifty-nine people are killed, many of them children curious about the receding waterline that signals the oncoming wave.
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1950 |
Hurricanes begin to be named alphabetically with the radio alphabet: Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, etc. |
1953 |
The National Hurricane Center establishes a system for naming storms, using alphabetical lists of women's names. Rather than repeat names every year, enough names are used so that a single list of names is recycled every six years, although storms that cause significant damage or loss of life have their names "retired." |
1955 |
August 7-21: Hurricane Diane assaults the east coast, killing 187 people. |
1962 |
 March 6: The "Ash Wednesday Storm," a winter storm, slams against the east coast from North Carolina to New England, leaving hurricane-like devastation.
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1969 |
 August 17-18: Hurricane Camille, one of only two Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S., blasts Mississippi and Alabama, causing $1.4 billion in damage.
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1970 |
The Weather Bureau is renamed the National Weather Service, and becomes part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Commerce Department. |
1972 |
June 16-25: Hurricane Agnes, a relatively weak but large weather pattern, hits Florida and moves northward up the East coast, causing floods in Pennsylvania and New York, killing 115 people and causing $2.1 billion in property damage. |
1979 |
The system for naming hurricanes evolves to include men's names, and names of English, Spanish and French origin. Since 1981, the naming system has been administered by the World Meteorological Organization, an international committee.
September 12-13: Hurricane Frederic assaults Mississippi and Alabama, causing $2.3 billion in damage. |
1983 |
August 18: Hurricane Alicia makes landfall at Galveston Island, Texas, unleashing 23 small tornadoes, killing 21 people, leaving Houston littered with tree limbs and broken glass, and causing $2 billion in damage. |
1985 |
October 26 - November 1: Hurricane Juan devastates south central Louisiana and coastal Texas. Though only rated a Category 1 storm, Juan racks up $1.5 billion in damage, and kills 63 people. |
1988 |
September 8-19: Hurricane Gilbert generates the lowest sea level pressure (888 millibars) to be recorded in the Western Hemisphere -- but by the time it reaches land at Cozumel, Mexico, its intensity has subsided somewhat. Moving northward, Gilbert takes the form of a major rainstorm over Texas and Oklahoma, spawning 29 tornadoes and killing three people. |
1989 |
 September 17-25: Hurricane Hugo slams the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Florida and South Carolina, causing $7 billion in damage. At the time, it is the costliest hurricane ever to hit the nation, though loss of life is limited.
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1991 |
August 19: Hurricane Bob affects North Carolina, New York, and New England, destroying 32 of 35 shorefront homes in Angelica Point, Massachusetts, blowing 125 mph wind gusts through the Cape Cod towns of Brewster and North Truro, and leaving $1.5 billion in damage in its wake. |
1992 |
 August 24: Hurricane Andrew sweeps through Florida and Louisiana, causing $26,500,000,000 worth of damage (in 1992 dollars), more than any hurricane before or since.
September 11: Hurricane Iniki, birthed from the El Niño weather phenomenon, hits one of the Hawaiian islands, Kauai, killing seven people and damaging an estimated 90% of the island's wood-frame buildings. |
1995 |
October 3: Hurricane Opal makes landfall just south of Pensacola, on Florida's Panhandle. Nine people are killed in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina, all but one by falling trees. In Opal's wake, $3 billion in property damage is assessed. |
1996 |
September 5: Hurricane Fran blows into Cape Fear, North Carolina, wreaking havoc on coastal towns, homes, and trees, and racking up $3.2 billion in property damage.
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1635-1935 | 1938-1996
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