The US Hurricanes Many Have Forgotten

S​ome U.S. hurricanes are infamous, either for their massive destruction, death toll, or both. Andrew, Camille, Galveston 1900, Katrina, Maria and Sandy are just a few of those.

Many others were destructive but also overshadowed or forgotten due to the passage of time, a more recent hurricane, or, in some cases, another hurricane in the same season.   

We've ranked those overshadowed U.S. hurricanes since 1900 where 1 is, perhaps, the most forgotten, destructive, deadly hurricane not to pop immediately in your mind. You may wonder why each of these is rarely mentioned outside of the area they struck.

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8​. Iniki (1992)

On Sept. 11, 1992, Hurricane Iniki rammed through the island of Kaua'i at Category 4 intensity, the costliest ($6.9 billion damage) and deadliest (seven killed) hurricane on record in Hawaii since 1900.

Only seven other hurricanes have tracked within 75 miles of the main Hawaiian Islands since 1950. Iniki was the only major hurricane to slam into the islands. Most tropical cyclones approaching Hawaii from the east weaken to a tropical depression or low-grade tropical storm upon arrival.   

Iniki was overshadowed by one of only three Category 5 U.S. landfalls on record, Hurricane Andrew, a little more than two weeks earlier.  

7​. Frederic (1979)

Only more recent notorious hurricanes such as Katrina and Ivan had the power to overshadow arguably the most impactful U.S. landfalling hurricane of the late 1970s. 

Hurricane Frederic slammed ashore over Dauphin Island, Ala. on Sep. 12, 1979, driving a 12-15 foot storm surge over the barrier island. A wind gust of 145 mph was clocked atop the Dauphin Island Bridge, which was destroyed in the storm. 

At the time, Frederic was the costliest U.S. hurricane, with total damage of $2.3 billion. More than half a million people evacuated the region ahead of Frederic, the largest Gulf Coast evacuation at the time. 

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6​. Tampa Bay (1921)

Two recent hurricanes - Ian in 2022 and Charley in 2004 - gave the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area a scare before they hammered southwest Florida.

What worries emergency managers most is, despite significant surge and rainfall flooding from recent tropical storms, few if any residents were alive the last time the metro area took a direct hit.

T​he Oct. 25, 1921 Tampa Bay hurricane pushed a storm surge of up to 11 feet and estimated winds to 120 mph into downtown Tampa and Tarpon Springs. According to the National Weather Service, many buildings were "reduced to rubble" along the bay, and waves were "almost breaking in the streets of Ybor City."  

I​magine the damage that hurricane would inflict today in a metro area with 3.3 million people, including residents who have just moved in and never experienced a hurricane before.

5​. Betsy (1965)

Before the horrors of America's costliest hurricane, Katrina, there was another benchmark hurricane for New Orleans.

Hurricane Betsy roared northwestward into southeast Louisiana on Sep. 9, 1965, at Category 4 intensity, a terrible path to drive storm surge up the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and into Lake Pontchartrain.

A 10-foot storm surge overwhelmed the city's protection system. Levees failed along the Industrial Canal and in the Lower Ninth Ward. Flood water covered some homes up to rooftops. It was the city's worst flooding since a 1947 hurricane sent a 16-foot surge into Lake Pontchartrain, flooding most of the downtown area.

The official death toll from Betsy in both Florida and Louisiana was 75. Betsy was the first billion-dollar hurricane in U.S. history, with total damage now estimated at $14.1 billion (2024 dollars).  

4​. Donna (1960)

Hurricane Donna should occupy elite status in the nation's hurricane history.

Donna was the only hurricane of record to produce hurricane-force winds in Florida, the Mid-Atlantic states and New England, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The Category 4 storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, drove an 11 to 13 foot storm surge into the Keys and southwest Florida on Sept. 10, 1960.

Donna continued its rampage up the East Coast. A 120 mph gust was clocked in Manteo, N.C., and a 4 to 8 foot surge swamped the N. Carolina coast. Parts of coastal New England were inundated by a 5 to 10 foot storm surge. Block Island, R.I. recorded a gust to 130 mph.  

G​iven Sandy's $88.5 billion damage toll, a similar hurricane to Donna today would easily be among the nation's costliest hurricanes.

3​. Great Miami Hurricane (1926)

As destructive as Category 5 Hurricane Andrew was for Homestead and South Dade County, Florida, in 1992, it was not the worst-case scenario for Miami. Just 12 miles difference in the path of Andrew kept it from producing a devastating storm surge into the heart of Miami.

On Sept. 18, 1926, the eye of the Cat. 4 "Great Miami Hurricane" tracked directly over the city, driving a 15-foot storm surge over Miami Beach two to three blocks inland from the bay. According to the National Hurricane Center, every building in downtown Miami was either damaged or destroyed.

Tragically, as the eye was passing overhead, many rushed outside, crowding city streets to assess the damage, unaware the hurricane's eastern semicircle was about to strike. Many of the hurricane's fatalities occurred after the eye passed.

Surge flooding from Lake Okeechobee overwhelmed protective dikes, inundating the city of Moore Haven, Fla.

An estimated 372 people lost their lives in this hurricane in South Florida and along the northern Gulf Coast, where the storm made a second landfall.

2​. Rita (2005)

We almost ranked this number one, for many reasons.

At its peak intensity, Rita was stronger in the Gulf of Mexico (895 millibars) than all but three other Atlantic Basin hurricanes, occupying the elite sub-900 millibar minimum surface pressure club.  

I​t inflicted $29.2 billion damage in the U.S., a top 15 costliest hurricane.

Its up to 15-foot storm surge wiped out parts of southwest Louisiana, including the towns of Cameron, Creole, Grand Cheniere and Holly Beach.

An estimated 3.7 million residents evacuated from Corpus Christi to Beaumont in, perhaps, the largest evacuation in U.S. history. The ensuing gridlock left motorists stranded without gas, adequate food or restrooms, all during a triple-digit heat wave. A 2006 report cited up to 118 may have died in the evacuation itself. Many may have evacuated unnecessarily.

There are three reasons we think this was overshadowed.

-​ It happened less than a month after Katrina, with national attention focused on the tragedy of that hurricane's aftermath. Then, one month after Rita came Wilma, which hammered South Florida and set a new Atlantic Basin pressure record in the western Caribbean Sea.

-​ After threatening the Houston metro and triggering the mass evacuation, the center bent east, sparing Houston, but hammering southwest Louisiana and Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas.

-​ While the aforementioned number of heat deaths was sad and probably avoidable, only seven were killed directly by Rita itself.

1​. Okeechobee Hurricane (1928)

You may have heard of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the deadliest U.S. hurricane, which claimed 8,000 to 12,000 lives. But the nation's second deadliest hurricane, also in the early 20th century, was estimated to claim hundreds more lives than Katrina.

On the evening of Sept. 16, 1928, the second Cat. 4 hurricane in two years roared ashore in South Florida. A storm surge of 10 feet inflicted heavy damage along the Palm Beach County coast.

That wasn't nearly the most tragic aspect of this hurricane.

Strong, north-to-northwest winds around the hurricane piled water at the south end of Lake Okeechobee, producing a 6 to 9 foot lake surge, topping a levee which was only built to a height of 4 to 5 feet. Water swept over the towns of Bean City, Belle Glade, Chosen, Pahokee and South Bay.  

Then, as the hurricane passed by to the northwest, south winds pushed water over protective dikes on the lake's north shore, leading to significant flooding.  

An estimated 2,500 were killed, many of those migrant farm workers whose bodies were never found. One mass grave near Port Mayaca contains 1,600 hurricane victims.  

Given agricultural interests and population in place, the 143-mile long Herbert Hoover Dike was built in the 1930s, along with a network of canals and control gates, to avoid disasters such as the twin hurricanes of the 1920s and allow the lake to drain in a controlled fashion when it becomes full.  

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter with a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He completed a Bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then a Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.