The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season will go down as one of the deadliest in modern U.S. history as four storms killed more than 300 people from the Gulf Coast to the Appalachians.
Hurricane Helene, which landed Sept. 26 in Florida’s Big Bend region, will be remembered both for its ferociousness and staying power as it delivered high winds, extreme rainfall and life-threatening flooding 500 miles inland to western North Carolina.
The storm’s 225 fatalities — combined with 45 deaths from Hurricane Beryl, 10 from Hurricane Debby and 24 from Hurricane Milton — place 2024 behind only 2017 and 2005 for total U.S. hurricane fatalities in the modern era, NOAA said. Only Maria, which struck Puerto Rico in 2017, killing more than 2,900, and Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 in Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, were deadlier, according to NOAA statistics.
“We lost a very disheartening number of lives with Helene, and we learned important lessons from that disaster,” including about how to better communicate storm risk, said Jamie Rhome, deputy director of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center.
