Hurricane Hugo

Hurricane Hugo was one of the most fearsome storms to hit the Carolinas, causing 50 deaths and about $8 billion in damage in the U.S. and Caribbean.

The massive storm was classified as a Category 3 hurricane as it approached Charleston from Puerto Rico in late September 1989, but intensified to a Category 4 storm before making landfall at Sullivan’s Island, S.C.

Photo: Tony Arruza/Corbis

Hurricane Harvey

After traveling through the Gulf of Mexico in late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey arrived in the United States as a Category 4 storm. It was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States in a decade, after 2005’s Hurricane Wilma, and the arrival of Harvey coincided with its peak intensity: winds of 130 mph (215 kph).

Photo: Marcus Yam/LA Times/Getty Images

Haiti Storm

After barreling through Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, the huge, slow-moving storm of Haiti weakened to a post-tropical cyclone before making U.S. landfall in October 2012. Storm surges of more than 13 feet (4 meters) left parts of lower Manhattan under water and residents across the borough without power for days. Sandy destroyed or damaged about 650,000 homes in the Northeast region and killed 117 people in the U.S. alone, as well as 69 others in Canada and the Caribbean.

Photo: Ken Cedeno/Corbis

Camille

Camille, a nasty storm that brought heavy flooding and 200-mph (320-kph) winds to the Gulf Coast and later Virginia. After forming near the Cayman Islands in August 1969, the storm first blew through Cuba at a Category 3 level and later intensified on its way to Mississippi. It weakened to a tropical storm before it reached Virginia, but Camille continued to pour upward of 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain as well as flash flooding and mudslides on a region just 120 miles (193 kilometers) from the nation’s capital. The storm resulted in 256 deaths and more than $1.4 billion in damage.

Photo: Jim Sugar/Corbis

Gilbert

With a 500 nautical mile (926 kilometer) diameter, Gilbert was one of the largest hurricanes ever observed in the Atlantic basin. The storm originated near the Cape Verde Islands on the west coast of Africa, the birthplace of some of the worst hurricanes in history, including Andrew.

After becoming a Category 5 storm in September 1988, Gilbert literally covered the entire island of Jamaica, damaging roughly 80 percent of the island’s homes.

Photo: Carl & Ann

1935 Florida Keys Labor Day Hurricane

This Category 5 storm, considered the strongest to hit the U.S. in the 20th century, brought 200-mph (320-kph) winds and soaking rain to the upper and middle Florida Keys and killed approximately 400 people. More than half of the dead were World War I veterans who had been working on building a highway from Key West to Key Largo. Damage in the United States was estimated at $6 million.

Katrina

Hurricane Katrina is often referred to as a man-made, rather than natural, disaster by those who fault infrastructure problems for the decimation caused by this storm that ravaged New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast. In all, Hurricane Katrina claimed 1,833 lives and at $108 billion is considered the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, though 2017’s Hurricane Harvey could surpass that amount once the damage is tallied.

Galveston Hurricane of 1900

Katrina was terrible, but it’s not the worst storm in the Gulf Coast. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 took an estimated 6,000 to 12,000 lives, mostly in Texas, in September 1900 and is considered the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history.

The storm didn’t become a hurricane until passing west of the Florida Keys where a sharp left turn sent it heading straight toward Galveston. That gave residents and local officials less than four days to prepare.