Every Major US City's Worst Weather Disaster

Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans in 2005 and about 70% of the city’s occupied housing, 134,000 units, were damaged in the storm.

The Tampa Bay hurricane of 1848 was called the Great Gale. It struck the city in September and wiped out the citrus crops.

A tornado blasted the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grand Prairie region in March of 2000, causing property damage estimated at $500 million.

A tornado in 1974 in Tulsa and accompanying flooding caused about $212 million in damage.

A tornado slammed into the twin cities on Aug. 21,1904 and devastated the business districts of St. Paul.

Drought and heavy winds in October of 1991 stoked a brush fire into a major conflagration near Oakland and Berkeley. The fire eventually spread to 1,500 acres.

Hurricane Isabel, once a Category 5 storm, made landfall on Sept. 18, 2003 and eventually caused more than $2.4 billion in damages in the region, including Virginia Beach.

The only cyclone to make landfall in California in the 20th century pummeled Long Beach in 1939 causing torrential rainfall and flooding.

An outbreak of tornadoes in 1913 caused $250 million in damage in the Omaha area.

Thirty tornadoes touched down in North Carolina in April 2011, one of which took aim at Raleigh, packing wind speeds of 160 mph.

The hurricane of 1926 was a Category 4 cyclone that caused $164.8 billion in damage (adjusted for inflation).

Flooding in Colorado Springs in 2013 forced thousands of people to flee and destroyed homes and farms.

The Ruskin Heights Tornado, named after the Kansas City neighborhood it impacted, was one of 35 tornadoes that touched down in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Missouri on May 20, 1957.

What Georgia residents called a 500-year flood in 2009 caused $500 million in damage.

The capital of California was under water for months because of torrential rain, and the state government was forced to relocate to San Francisco.

A flood in the Arizona town resulted from 3.29 inches of rain that fell in one day — on Sept. 8, 2014.

Like much of California, Fresno was inundated by flooding that followed colossal storms in 1862.

Flooding that followed the arrival of Hurricane Octave in 1983 uprooted 10,000 people and caused more than $1 billion in damages, adjusted for inflation.

Flooding around the New Mexico city in 1941 caused $55 million in damage, adjusted for inflation.

The Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940 was a massive storm that swept over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, killing people and livestock, with winds reaching 54 mph in Milwaukee.

In September 2003, Hurricane Isabel blasted the Maryland-Virginia-Washington, D.C. area with winds of up to 105 mph after it made landfall.

The Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky area was hit by part of a 148-tornado outbreak in 13 states in April of 1974.

Major thunderstorm activity led to heavy floods in Las Vegas in 1975, with some areas getting 3 inches on July 3.

On May 3, 1999, a supercell of 74 tornadoes took aim at Oklahoma and Kansas. The tornadoes caused over $1 billion in damage, including devastation in Oklahoma City.

The Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak in February of 2008 caused an estimated damage of $520 million.

The Pineapple Express jetstream that came into Oregon in February of 1996 melted snow and dumped much rain on the region, causing a deadly flood.

Over a 36-hour period from May 1-2 in 2010, Nashville was soaked with 13.57 inches of rain that led to a flood that caused $2 billion damage in private property.

The Motor City ground to a halt in late January of 1978 because of a blizzard that coated much of Michigan during one of that state’s coldest winters ever.

The Texas city on the Mexican border went 119 days without rain, and ranchers had to sell their cattle so they wouldn’t have to watch them die.

One of the most powerful hurricanes to strike the New England city blasted the region in September of 1938 with winds of 121 mph, the strongest ever recorded in the area.

The Knickerbocker Storm of 1922 is named after the tragedy connected with the massive snow storm that hit the nation’s capital in January. The storm caused the collapse of the Knickerbocker Theater that killed 98 people.

Arson and severe drought conditions caused the Hayman Fire in July of 2002 that burned more than 138,000 acres.

The state of Washington was inundated with rain and wind on Oct. 12, 1962, that was so heavy that the World’s Fair was forced to close early.

An outbreak of 50 tornadoes in the Great Lakes region on April 11-12, 1965, swept up Indiana, where twin twisters touched down near the town of Dunlap.

Hurricane Hugo struck Charlotte in September of 1989, leaving 700,000 residents without power for weeks.

Extreme heat and temperatures as high as 100 degrees are not typical in San Francisco. But over Labor Day in 2017, those temperatures were recorded in the Bay Area, resulting in multiple deaths.

In 1978, a blizzard slammed Ohio’s capital city. Wind gusts up to 111 mph were reported and temperatures with wind chill reached lows of 60 below zero. Across Ohio, the storm dubbed “The White Hurricane” killed 51 people.

In May 1949, more than 10 inches of rain fell on Fort Worth, Texas, causing the Clear Fork River to flood. The flood killed 10 people and forced 13,000 from their homes.

Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September 2017 killing one person in Jacksonville and 42 people total across 18 counties.

On Memorial Day 1981, a flood in Austin, Texas, left 13 dead. Torrential rain brought water as high as the ceiling in many residential homes in less than two hours.

A flood that hit San Jose in February 2017 caught residents off guard as the city failed to notify them of the threat.

The flood of 1922 claimed more lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area than any other natural disaster in history. Nearly 18 inches of rain fell in the city throughout the month of April. The flooding left 1,000 people homeless and 13 dead.

A fire set by a hunter spread out of control in the San Diego area in October 2003. The fire burned over a quarter million acres, destroyed more than 2,800 buildings, and killed 15 people.

In 1921, torrential rain in San Antonio led to flooding that caused $5 million in damage and left 51 people dead.

Between Florida and New York, Hurricane Agnes dropped 19 inches of rain in June 1972. Pennsylvania was hit particularly hard with the Susquehanna River rising 15 feet above flood stage.

In late September and early October of 1983, Tropical Storm Octave dumped more than 6 inches of rain around Phoenix, resulting in the flooding of the Gila River and 14 deaths.

Unlike most storms on this list, the death toll from Hurricane Rita in 2005 was caused by the response to the storm rather than the storm itself. When 2.5 million residents tried to evacuate the city on the order of officials, gridlock led to 107 deaths — among them 24 elderly people whose bus overheated and caught fire — while the storm itself barely touched Houston.

In the summer of 1995, a record-breaking heat wave hit Chicago. On July 13, O’Hare Airport reported a record high temperature of 104 degrees.

Record-breaking rain from two storm systems hit Southern California, causing the Los Angeles River to flood and destroy homes and bridges in March 1938.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 affected much of the Eastern Seaboard. New York City reported wind gusts as high as 85 mph, and Wall Street shut down for three consecutive days.