Hurricanes are often remembered by their category, landfall location, or cost. But some of their most lasting effects can be seen in what changes afterward.
Major storms have influenced how businesses and the insurance industry think about flood and storm surge, catastrophe modeling, infrastructure, accumulation, claims, reinsurance, and business interruption.
According to NOAA, tropical cyclones have caused more than $1.5 trillion in damage across U.S. billion-dollar disasters since 1980, making them the costliest disaster category tracked by the agency.
Looking back at some of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history offers an important reminder: the impact of a storm rarely stops at the projected path.
Here are 10 major hurricanes—and the risk lessons that remain relevant for brokers and their clients today.
1. Hurricane Katrina: When Multiple Exposures Collide
Hurricane Katrina remains one of the defining catastrophe events in modern U.S. insurance history. The storm demonstrated how complex losses can become when wind, flood, storm surge, infrastructure failure, and business interruption overlap.
Risk Lesson: Hurricane planning shouldn’t stop at wind. Flood, storm surge, access, utilities, infrastructure, and extended recovery timelines can all influence how an operation responds.
2. Hurricane Harvey: When Duration Becomes the Risk
When Hurricane Harvey stalled over Texas in 2017, it became one of the most significant rainfall events in U.S. history. NOAA reported a peak storm-total rainfall of 60.58 inches, illustrating how a slow-moving storm can create significant exposure over an extended period.
For businesses, that can mean more than property damage. Warehouses, transportation routes, inventory, equipment, and supply chains may all be affected.
Risk Lesson: A hurricane’s duration and rainfall can be as important as its wind speed or landfall location. Understanding where property is stored and how goods move can help identify vulnerabilities to prolonged flooding and disruption.
3. Hurricane Ian: When Catastrophe Pressure Reaches the Market
Hurricane Ian arrived in 2022 during an already challenging period for Florida’s property insurance market. The event placed additional attention on claims, litigation, reinsurance, capacity, and the broader pressures major catastrophes can create throughout the insurance ecosystem.
Risk Lesson: A significant catastrophe can affect more than individual insureds. It can put pressure on claims, capacity, reinsurance, and pricing, reinforcing the importance of current and accurate exposure information.
4. Hurricane Maria: When Infrastructure Becomes the Bottleneck
Hurricane Maria caused catastrophic damage in Puerto Rico in 2017 and demonstrated how closely business recovery can be connected to the infrastructure surrounding an operation.
Power, transportation, communications, healthcare, ports, and other essential services experienced significant disruption.
Risk Lesson: A business may be ready to resume operations while the infrastructure it depends on is not. Understanding dependencies on power, roads, ports, suppliers, communications, and customers should be part of the broader risk conversation.
5. Hurricane Sandy: When Geography Challenges Assumptions
Sandy’s 2012 impact across the Northeast challenged assumptions about where severe hurricane-related losses can occur. The storm brought significant flooding and storm surge to areas not always viewed as traditional hurricane zones.
Risk Lesson: Historical frequency doesn’t eliminate exposure. Storm surge, flood potential, coastal property, infrastructure, and accumulation should be considered even in regions where major hurricanes occur less frequently.
6. Hurricane Ida: When the Impact Travels Inland
Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana in 2021, but its effects continued far beyond the Gulf Coast. The storm’s remnants produced severe flooding across parts of the Northeast, including New York and New Jersey.
One storm system can affect multiple communities, transportation networks, and business operations long after its initial landfall.
Risk Lesson: Hurricane risk can become a regional supply chain and infrastructure event. Brokers should consider how flooding, transportation disruption, access issues, and other downstream effects could reach clients far from the coast.
7. Hurricane Helene: When Traditional Assumptions About Vulnerability Change
In 2024, Hurricane Helene caused widespread damage across the Southeast, including historic rainfall and flooding in western North Carolina. NOAA reported Helene’s total cost at $78.7 billion and identified it as the deadliest hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland since Katrina.
The event demonstrated how topography, waterways, infrastructure, and local conditions can contribute to severe impacts well inland.
Risk Lesson: Distance from the coast doesn’t eliminate hurricane-related risk. Inland infrastructure, equipment, transportation routes, and communities may face significant exposures when extreme rainfall and local conditions intersect.
8. Hurricane Irma: When Exposure Spans Multiple States
Hurricane Irma affected Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and other areas in 2017. NOAA notes that Harvey and Irma marked the first time in recorded history that two Category 4 or higher hurricanes struck the U.S. mainland in the same year.
For businesses operating across multiple states, a widespread event can create overlapping exposures across facilities, suppliers, customers, and transportation routes.
Risk Lesson: Understanding catastrophe risk requires looking beyond individual locations. A client’s broader network of operations, suppliers, inventory, and transportation routes may all be affected by the same event or active storm season.
9. Hurricane Andrew: When One Event Changes How Risk Is Modeled
Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992 and became an important catalyst for changes in how insurers evaluated catastrophe exposure.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, Andrew contributed to increased attention to coastal exposure, hurricane deductibles, reinsurance, stronger building codes, and the evolution of catastrophe modeling.
Risk Lesson: Major events can change how the industry understands and evaluates catastrophe risk. Historical experience remains valuable, but modeling, exposure data, construction, development, and changing conditions can provide additional context for future decisions.
10. Hurricane Ike: When Port Disruption Reaches Beyond the Coast
Hurricane Ike struck Texas in 2008, bringing significant storm surge, wind damage, and disruption across the Gulf Coast.
Its impact highlighted the interconnected nature of coastal commercial property, energy infrastructure, ports, transportation networks, and marine operations.
Risk Lesson: A disruption at the coast doesn’t necessarily stay there. Port closures, storm surge, equipment damage, transportation delays, and interrupted cargo movements can create downstream effects throughout a supply chain.
What These Storms Have in Common
No two hurricanes create exactly the same loss pattern, but history points to several recurring considerations.
Location isn’t the whole exposure.
Supply chains, infrastructure, utilities, and transportation networks can extend the effects of a storm far beyond a client’s physical property.
Accumulation matters.
Cargo, equipment, inventory, and other property concentrated in exposed areas can significantly change the risk.
Infrastructure matters.
A facility may remain intact while power, roads, ports, suppliers, communications, or customers remain unavailable.
Conditions change.
Historical experience is useful, but development, infrastructure, operations, and other changing conditions can alter the exposure over time.
Preparation should be operational.
Understanding what a client can realistically do before, during, and after an event is an important part of evaluating hurricane risk.
What This Means for Brokers
Hurricane risk isn’t limited to whether a client’s location sits inside the forecast cone.
Understanding the broader operation—where property is located, how goods move, which infrastructure the business depends on, where values accumulate, and what happens when transportation or utilities are disrupted—can help reveal exposures that may otherwise be overlooked.
That’s where Risk Management can add value. Falvey’s Risk Intelligence, Risk Engineering, and Risk Advisory teams work together to help brokers and insureds understand changing conditions, evaluate operational exposures, and turn information into practical guidance.
Preparing for hurricane risk starts with understanding the full operation.
