Brit Reacts to the WORST HURRICANES in AMERICAN HISTORY... 

Hi, Lewis. I am quite likely your only subscriber who is a meteorologist that forecasts Hurricanes, typhoons (same thing in NW Pacific) and tropical cyclones (same thing in other basins). I've been forecasting hurricanes since I graduated from Texas A&M in 1980. My job is to manage a team of hurricane specialists who forecast for every single such storm worldwide. Our clients are mostly the petrochemical industry along the Gulf coast, every utility company from south Texas to Maine, major retailers, banks, and lots of other companies, including thousands of ships worldwide. We don't just issue forecasts, we guide our clients through their hurricane response plans when a storm develops. Clients like oil refineries have to make VERY expensive decisions whether to shut down in advance of a hurricane. Shutting down a refinery can cost tens of millions of dollars for every day the refinery is shut down. It's a big decision that we help them to make. A hurricane (typhoon, tropical cyclone) is a rotating low pressure area that forms over tropical water, where the water temperature is generally 27C (80F) or greater. They derive their energy from the latent heat of condensation. The warmer the water, the stronger they can get. Atlantic hurricanes are typically 250-500 miles (400-800km) across. A hurricane has 1-minute average winds of 74+ mph (64 kts). However, winds can approach 200 mph, which is similar to a strong tornado. Hurricane force wind can extend to over 125 miles (200km) from the center. Strongest winds are very near the center. Depending upon where a hurricane hits, it can drive a wall of water up to 30 ft deep (9 meters) into the coast when it moves ashore. How high the surge gets depends a lot on the size of the hurricane force wind field, but equally the coastal bathymetry (water depth). The most vulnerable area of the U.S. is southeast Louisiana and Mississippi, where Katrina hit. Second would be western Florida in the Tampa Bay area. Third would be the northeast, where Sandy hit in 2012. Some areas have very deep water just offshore, like Miami. The same hurricane that would produce a 30ft surge in Mississippi would only produce a 7-9 foot surge into Miami. Besides the wind aspect, which covers an area thousands of times greater than a tornado, a tropical storm (less than 74 mph wind) or hurricane often produces heavy rain. Totals of 15-20 inches (38-51cm) over a 12 hour period. Hurricane Harvey, which struck south Texas in 2017, dropped up to 61 inches (155 cm) of rain over a 4-5 day period way up the coast from Houston (where I live) to Beaumont (near the Louisiana border). Massive flooding occurred. Hurricanes also produce tornadoes, usually weaker ones than those that strike areas well inland. It's often hard to distinguish the tornado damage from hurricane damage post-storm. I haven't watched this video yet. Going do that now and I may add more comments.

The fun thing with hurricanes, is they very often spawn tornados as well. so you end up getting hit by not only a hurricane, but then random tornados as well.

Hurricanes are formed over tropical waters, while tornados are usually formed over land. Both rotate but a hurricane is a thousand times larger than a tornado.

Sometimes the flooding is so bad, people end up on their roofs for rescue.

East Coast: Hurricanes Middle America: Tornadoes West Coast: Earthquakes Good times, baby! Good times.

You can't protect from hurricanes. But now we know days in advance it's coming. You can at least evacuate to try to save your life.

My aunt was a head nurse of a hospital during Katrina im only 23 but i can remember the sadness. One of the saddest things ive ever witnessed. The elderly didn't stand a chance the animals didn't either. Truly heart wrenching so many were lost and never even found.

Florida native here. To answer how often 2004 we got hit by 4 hurricanes within like 4 months. But there are some years we don’t get anything. Hurricane “season” is June 1st - November 30. There are better building codes in FL but hurricanes are a force to be reckoned with between sustained winds, wind gusts, tornados, and flooding. Grew up on the beach, we evacuated quite a few times and didn’t know if we would have a home to come back too. My parents evacuated a few years ago when a cat. 5 headed straight for them. It luckily turned at the last second and didn’t get as close as it was expected to. I was part of ride out crew at Disney in 2017 during Irma, I lived in an apartment building and I literally packed everything into my closet and put trash bags on all my electronics, hoping that if the window or roof goes they won’t get fully damaged 🤷‍♀️. I know there are always jokes online about hurricane parties, but, honestly they are nothing to party about for sure.

I was in Homestead Florida 24 hours after Hurricane Andrew hit to help with emergency relief . No electricity , no running water (without boiling first) , the easiest way to explain is to just list the things that I hadn't expected 1. No Power , no traffic lights. Citizens formed teams at every intersection to act as traffic control in shifts from sun up until sun down . 2. Sundown to Sun up curfew enforced by National Guard and Police to deter Looting . 3. No Street signs , normal landmarks are gone GPS and Google Map were not a thing , so finding your way was difficult. 4. People lining up for food and water , a line of porta-potty's line up for over 100 yards , a semi trailer with pizza ovens inside serving all day long to people living in a tent city. 5. Every make of civilian and military Helicopter you have ever seen overhead carrying cargo nets of supplies . After a couple days you knew the sound of different types and didn't even look up. I turned 25 on the day Andrew hit , Had been married 2 months and left my wife in Tampa to disappear into the mess . Within 24 hours my Father and I were meeting with military generals. We told them what equipment we had and they told us where we were needed . My brother spent was in New Orleans 24 hours after Katrina and spent over a year in the area doing clean up , repairs and construction . (single guy) Nothing you watch can truly show you the devastation of these GIANT storms like standing in the aftermath .

I absolutely recommend watching the documentary When The Levees Broke about hurricane Katrina. It's incredibly eye opening regarding not just the hurricane itself, but the government's horrendous mishandling of their response to the citizens who were effected.

On average, 12 hurricanes occur each year in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. This number is based on a 30-year period from 1991 to 2020, which also averaged 14 named storms and 7 major hurricanes per season. The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to November 30, but hurricanes can occur outside of this period

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 forced Florida to change their building codes. One of the findings from studies of the hurricane is that once the wind pulled off the roof, the home would collapse without the roof structure. Metal roof straps were mandated that tie the roof rafters to the wall studs of the house. Some states like mine here in NY also adopted some of these codes like roof straps. For old homes, certain modifications require installing roof straps for every other roof rafter or wall stud--I don't know the exact building code.

You know, natural disasters like hurricanes also bring out the best in Americans. When Houston flooded and the streets became waterways people got on their little boats and rescued strangers from the roofs of their homes. Louisianans showed up in a little flotilla to do the same, calling themselves the Cajun Navy. Hotels opened up their rooms and sheltered people who'd been flooded out of their houses. One even took in people's pets because so many people refused to leave their animals. I remember a pregnant woman went into labor and her neighbors linked arms so she could hold onto them as she made her way to the boat that would take her to the hospital. Paramedics stood neck deep in flood water to rescue people out of their houses, passing the elderly and disabled over their heads. Flood water in Houston is full of chemicals and floating, stinging islands of fire ants. People waded waist deep through that water with their children on their shoulders. Men carried their wives on their backs. You saw people with their dogs slung around their shoulders, holding onto their paws so they wouldn't slide off. The Red Cross came in their little trucks and brought warm food and encouragement.

I lost everything in 2005 to hurricane Katrina. I lived in New Orleans and my city was devastated

This definitely happens now. One example is when Hurricane Florence hit us here in Eastern North Carolina 2018. She was a weak storm. I think she dropped to a Cat 1 by the time she got us, but she was moving so slowly that she sat on top of us for 3 days, dumping rain the whole time. My town was completely cut off due to flooding, and we were out of power for 2 weeks. PS. Hurricanes can span tornadoes as well. Yay!😅

I stayed in the Fl Keys during Hurricane Irma. It was terrifying and took over 30 days to get power and water and for the government to let people that evacuated back to their homes.😢😢😢

I grew up on the Mississippi coast. We dealt with hurricanes pretty much every year. Flooding is a big problem with these giant storms. It comes from the combination of the storm surge (literally the ocean being forced inland by the wind) and the massive amount of rain that they drop. These storms can be hundreds of miles wide and even spawn tornadoes inside them. Luckily these days we have plenty of warning and can evacuate to limit the death count.

The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 was the stuff of nightmares. They were caught off guard and cut off from mainland so no way of escape or time to prepare. The death toll is estimated at 8k, but ranges from 6k - 12k people. There were so many bodies that attempts were made to take them off shore for burial, but bodies began washing back onto shore. They shifted to creating multiple funeral pyres to burn the bodies and those fires continued for weeks. Wikipedia said that free whiskey was offered to those men who had the unfortunate duty of carrying out those cremations. As a native Texan, I remember learning about that storm. Fast forward to 2008 & Galveston was hit hard by Hurricane Ike which destroyed so much again. There wasn't a seawall in 1900, but thank goodness there was one in 2008, plus the advanced warnings & projected areas of landfall gave residents on Galveston and inland time to evacuate. The interviews with those who didn't evacuate and survived were full of Come to Jesus moments. Even when the hurricanes go inland, the flooding is deadly in all areas partly due to what's floating or swimming in the water. Power lines have electrocuted people. Sharks, alligators, snakes, etc are commonly seen in the waters. Currents & storm drains are hard to see & people can get caught in them & drown. The flooding from Hurricane Harvey rolling up the coast to Houston was devastating to all areas & more people died from the flooding than the initial storm, which hit and devastated the Port Aransas & Rockport areas much further south (even though it was expected to hit my hometown of Corpus Christi). My family decided, after riding out Hurricane Celia in 1970 in a small wooden pier & beam house, that hurricanes in the future were our cue from God to evacuate for a hill country vacation. I was 2 when we rode out Hurricane Celia. Corpus Christi has a seawall built because of the deadly Hurricane of 1919, which had a storm surge of nearly 17 ft and swept many people out to the bay. Deaths were approximately 284 people, but the total number is figured to have been much higher. Our Museum of Science & Natural History has an area dedicated to that catastrophic hurricane. One survivor of the 1919 hurricane, Dr. Robert Simpson went on earn a doctorate in Meteorology & to help create the Saffir-Simpson Scale, which measures the intensity of hurricanes from Category 1 to Category 5.

What he said about Sandy is that it merged with a Nor' Easter to become a 'Frankenstorm' as it hit New York City around Halloween. Normally as a hurricane enters colder waters, it dies out. However, due to merging with another storm, it was able to maintain its strength as it moved North. It also hit at high tide and the one bay acted as a funnel for the storm surge making it worse. It's also known as Superstorm Sandy. Also, I remember a purple sky when my family had to evacuate because of Hurricane Andrew as we weren't Florida natives. *Edit* I don't know if you can watch it on your channel, but you can watch it offline, The New York Sea Grant has two documentaries on Superstorm Sandy and New York.

Yes, they have a "swirly thing", lol. They are worse than tornados because they are much larger, covering huge regions of a state, sometimes a hundred miles or more not just a mile or 2 wide like big tornados. They move slowly, staying in an area for hours causing more and more damage. They can spawn tornados, too. The worst part is the storm surge which can drive coastal water 10 or 20 feet high. I think more damage is caused by the storm surge. It can cause massive flooding. I lived through hurricane Irene in Florida. It was a cat 3. It lasted through the night into the following day. Massive destruction left in its wake.

I live in Houston, TX, and there have been 2 huge hurricanes (Ike 2008 and Harvey 2017) in the last 20 years. So yes, they still happen. My friend's house got washed out to sea. All the first floor apartments in my complex were flooded out. Entire coastal towns were wiped off the map. Houston has an extensive drainage to reduce flooding, but it always floods anyway. Galveston rebuilt the city by land-filling the island up to 20 feet above sea level, so there is a 20 foot high seawall to protect the southern side of the island. That why I snickered when you were talking about tornadoes. Another thing that happens is that the alligators move inland, so when the flood waters recede, we have to move them from the suburbs back to the bayous.

My youngest was hoping for a cat 5 when Irma came through Central Florida in 2017. When he discovered the sounds of the roof decking lifting from the trusses, he changed his mind about that. Irma was a cat 3 when it came over our home. A sinkhole opened up in our front yard. That was a long night to say the least.

I lived south of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina catg. 5 and Rita catg. 4 (weeks later). It looked like a nuclear bomb went off. The saltwater killed everything, and there was 3 to 6 ft. Of mud and dust everywhere. 22 ft. of water, for both hurricanes, where I lived. You should check out a video on Hurricane Katrina. We'd drive flatboats around the area in the streets about every 5-10 years for a Hurricane, and about every 2-3 years for bad storms. Super fun!

My son in Ft Lauderdale refused to go to a hotel during Rita and when his front door blew off, ended up having to drag his queen size mattress off the bed with his tiny girlfriend and hold it up for 8 hours. Then he went to the grocery store to charge is little generator and men tried to steal it from him. You need to watch in real time or videos from The Weather Channel. We in Florida know when you see iconic meteorologist Jim Cantone show up before it hits, that's the town that'll be the eye of the storm. After a hurricane, you see hundreds of commercial trucks in caravans coming from Northern states to work on restoring power and stuff - the caravans last for HOURS on I-95.

I actually live in the neighborhood of Atlantic City where the boardwalk was washed away. Spent 3 months with no heat or hot water. Lost all kinds of stuff due to flooding. It was a time.

The last big hurricane to hit the Panhandle of Florida was Hurricane Michael in 2018. Hurricane season starts June 1 and goes through November 30 - every year. What we are taught is to hide from the wind and run from the water. I'm hoping this will be a quiet season for us.

Lewis, to simplify things a bit, both tornadoes and hurricanes [aka typhoons in the Pacific] are "Cyclonic" storms. That means they spin around a central axis. So, in a way, a hurricane is like a tornado... but hundreds of miles wide. A hurricane has calm area at the center known as an "Eye". Which is where the phrase "eye of the storm" comes from.

The building codes were really updated after Andrew hit. Every building has to be certified as hurricane safe. Basically the timber used, the nails, the windows, everything has to be hurricane safe.

Hurricane Isabel hit Richmond, VA in 2003. It's wind bowed In the picture windows, put three 30m/100ft trees on top of my house [insured), cinder blocks on my pillow knocked out power for weeks, and then went north to wreck Baltimore. Like tornado warnings, accurate storm tracking and weather forecasting, evacuations from high risk areas, and common sense reduce causulities from hurricanes

Yes I was in Hurricane Hugo…my first one since moving to Coastal South Carolina. People are nervous this year because of a predicted above average season which starts June first and ends in November

Ian hit me here in North Central Florida. You just saw the picture. I lived in Homestead, Fl during hurricane Andrew and I was working at a hospital for three days. I have seen fish swimming on Miami streets. Our hurricane season just started this week. I could tell you stories

I live in a house in Galveston TX that survived the 1900 storm. When people ask about my house, I tell them it's a storm survivor. Locals know what you mean. These houses have plaques on them to designate which ones survived.

Yup, US weather is crazy. In the summer you get high winds and flooding from the Hurricanes and Tornados, and in the winter you get Blizzards with coastal floodings. Which is probably why many of us look forward to the relatively calm weather of the spring and fall months.

Hurricane Andrew changed the builder codes in south Florida Miami-Dade/Broward area. Homes built after 1992 are built to withstand category 5 hurricanes. Our homes have steel beams in between the normal wooden beams that most homes are built with. We also have hurricane resistant windows that are basically bulletproof glass. I have been through many hurricanes, they last extremely long and can be terrifying, usually they aren't that bad due to how prepared the area is for them. But they can last upward of 24 hours and are extremely loud, it is like being stuck in a mild tornado for a day.

So many people had homes destroyed in hurricane Katrina in 2005 that many of them moved either temporarily or even permanently in some cases. They moved to many different states. We had many families move to Utah at the time. Some stayed because they couldn’t afford to rebuild.

I’ve been through 3 hurricanes living on the Texas gulf coast all my life it’s bound to happen.They were around a catagory 3 . A lot of trees down & uprooted.Every one boards up their windows. The electricity is out about a week

I live in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and was on the island when Hurricane Sandy made landfall, and it was simply devastating, but for all that we suffered, it was nothing compared to what Sandy did to shore towns to the north of my city. That storm literally wiped out whole towns through wind, flooding, and fire damage. Nothing left but foundations. I shudder to think what would have happened had it been stronger. Stay safe out there, y’all.

Hurricane SEASON is annually from like August-November, roughly.

I live in NC and Hurrican Florence was insane in regards to flooding. A friend of mine lived near the Cape Fear River and she had to evacuate to her roof to avoid the water. My mom and I were without power for about a week and the most unbearable part for me was the heat. I remember taking cold showers to stave off the heat.

Bro, the US is far from the worst affected country by hurricanes and flooding. The have been some truly insane death tolls from these storms before we learned how to track them and warn people. Bhola cyclone : In 1970, this cyclone struck what is now Bangladesh and killed at least 300,000 people. China: 1938 Yellow River flood deaths estimates 400,000-900,000

My area took the brunt force of Ian in 2022, it hovered above us for almost 10 hours; people down my block still have tarps on their roofs or live in trailers waiting for repairs on their houses. I got lucky because my house took no damage at all, it's a huge house too (about 3000 sq ft) and man was I freaking out. I thought I lost my dad, it turns out he was on the lanai during the storm making eggs on a single burner propane stove and drinking a beer, there was no wind on my lanai but you could see everything whipping around my house really fast. Hurricanes can also bring a lot of tornados too. It peaked at Cat 5 but made landfall just under that. Ever since that storm, I spent a lot of money upgrading all my windows and doors with impact-rated stuff as well as double securing my roof with another nail (although I had my entire roof and skylights redone just before the storm). I also upgraded my air handler and replaced my entire circuit board also added a generator hook up directly to the house so I could power everything in a power outage due to the next hurricane. My power was out for 12 days after Ian. It was a huge learning experience for me as it was my first hurricane, being from Chicago we don't get those up there.

Lewis, hello from Florida! There is an official hurricane season. Starting June 1 until November 30, every year!!

Hurricanes hit the US every year in varied degrees. Not only the East Coast, but very rarely the West as well. Here in California we got one very odd stray hurricane last year that causes quite a bit of damage in flooding and landslides in the Southern Hills. Hurricanes are WAY more dangerous than tornadoes. Tornadoes can be a mile or two in diameter and last for a few minutes, while a hurricane can be hundreds of miles in diameter and last for hours and or days. Hurricanes themselves can and do spawn some very deadly tornadoes, so they are the massive producer. They start each hurricane season off with naming each storm starting with A and going to Z.....more and more often now they are having to recycle the alphabet. If one of the named storms wind up being a deadly one, they will retire that name and will never use it again in history. That is one reason you will never see another hurricane Katrina or Andrew. Fun fact, up until 1979, all hurricanes names were female. In 1979 they finally started alternating a male name and a female name and that has been the routine ever since.

Watching the worst hurricanes while sitting in the second tornado 🌪️ warning for today! I’m used to hurricanes 🌀 but not tornadoes 🌪️. Live on the east coast in Maryland.

We also have winter hurricanes on the east coast which are called Nor'easters (snow instead of rain).Hurricane season starts on June 1st through November.Multiple hurricanes form every year and it just depends on the track whether or not they hit the coast. Yes I've experienced hurricanes and Nor'easters.

I was 11 when Camille hit my MS small town, Biloxi. We stayed but we lived in North Biloxi. It was horrible. To this day at 65, wind scares me to death. I live on the Gulf Coast of MS, and WE will never stay for a Catagory 3 or more. If you live through just one, you will never forget it. Unlike tornadoes, hurricanes last for hours. Howling winds and torrential rains with tornadoes thrown in the mix is terrifying. June through October is hurricane season and we are on alert every time a tropical storm (before it turns into a hurricane) is detected.

Hello Floridian here. Yes it still happen. We just entered "hurricane season" it started June 1st and goes until November 30th. At anytime during this period ther will be hurricanes. This year is said to be a bad one.

Yes, hurricanes 🌀 are devastating. There's a huge difference between tornados and hurricanes. Hurricanes today, you get plenty of notice, although it's still difficult to know exactly where they make landfall. Historically, they caused more damage because technology, housing, and roads are better now. People tend to not want to leave their homes. The Galveston seawall was an important feat of human engineering at that time.

Here in Jacksonville Florida in 2017 we were hit by Hurricane Irma, and we had flooded streets like that. People in row boats going down the road it was crazy

Multiple hurricanes every year around Georgia we're lucky. When the hurricanes come your house can be ripped off foundation the water rises above the roof. Tornadoes spin off of it. Here in Georgia we get tropical storms and depressions. Keep in mind 15 foot is way taller than most roofs.

I was raised on the northwest gulf coast. Been through many hurricanes. We were blessed most of the time to only be in the outer bands. Still a lot of down power lines and trees, but not usually life threatening. We had one minor storm come directly through our city. As the eye passed over we went outside. The sun was shining, it was calm and no rain. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

The most recent major hurricane to hit the United States was Hurricane Ida in late August 2021, which made landfall in southeastern Louisiana as a Category 4 storm. Ida was the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclone of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, 16 years after Hurricane Katrina struck

In Australia the wildlife tries to kill you, in America the weather tries to kill you. Enjoy.

Hurricane Andrew’s winds have actually topped over 200mph

My brother was a medic in the 82nd Airborne Division in 1993 and was deployed to Homestead Air Force Base after the hurricane to assist in giving aid to the victims of Hurricane Andrew. He stated the desruction was unbelievable. There was nothing left. NOTHING, water, food, no shelter left, no vehicles, roads were covered in debris, now add a hundred thousand people trying to survive in it.

10:10 You seem to be suggesting American technology can prevent this. I love that, thank you. There are things to do for sure but when a hurricane is going to push the ocean ashore to your town that's nearby, that's going to happen. Part of the controversy of New Orleans in Katrina was that the levies should have been raised and enforced years before but the feds didn't want to spend the money. So in the end it cost way more.

The damage costs don’t just include the costs of homes but of everything else as well, including all the infrastructure. That is very expensive.

Live in Florida been through at least 5 Hurricanes and very severe Thunderstorm last bad storm we had a tornado go right next to our manufactured home and it took some of our wooden fence down and a massive tree limb was blocking our street

I’ve lived on the Gulf Coast quite a bit of my life. As a kid I was around here during Camille saw the destruction from that one. And I was living here in Gulfport Mississippi when hurricane Camille came through and it devastated it both times.

From Florida here! The intense flooding is from storm surge. That’s where the wind over the ocean is so strong that it literally pushes the ocean onto land. So it’s not necessarily from rain, but from the ocean waters

New York got hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. The entire subway system was flooded for a week. Fortunately most stuff survived but basements and the subway were completely trashed. Some basement apartments collapsed because of the water pressure. The storm really showed New York they weren’t really safe from major weather events. The city went on months long rebuilding frenzy that saw a complete redo of subway tunnels while completely removing some stations and relocating them while abandoning certain stations. I know of one right in Chinatown that was abandoned and the station was reworked. New Jersey took most of the storm damage though. The fire department was up the entire night doing water rescues and talking to power crews to fix up the electrical lines. The hospitals in new jersey and New York were overfilling with people. It was a rough few weeks.

I live in Florida and hurricane Ian flooded the rivers in my county causing 4 bridges to collapse. 3 neighborhoods and the highway went underwater. And there was gators everywhere.

Yes, flooding the streets during a hurricane is quite common. Hurricane season is from June 1 to Nov. 30. During this time, we could get hit several times a year, but they vary in severity. America has so many different weather and natural disasters that we have to be resilient to survive and rebuild when these happen.

Hurricanes happen enough where we have "Hurricane Season " which is from June-November. They have sustained winds; Cat 1 = 74-95 mph, Cat 2= 96-110 mph, Cat3 =111-130 mph, Cat 4 =131-155 & Cat 5 = anything greater than 155 mph and all of that is just the wind.The storm surge can be water over 18' Pretty nasty things. Just imagine hearing every growl, howl and every evil sound, AMPLIFIED 1000 percent with the sound of it taring things up to get to YOU. Yep pretty nasty things ....

Here in Georgia during hurricane season we send our power company employees to states that are affected as we're basically shielded from the hurricanes that hit North Carolina South Carolina Alabama Florida and thier surrounding states

I've mentioned before and maybe a current contractor can confirm this - back in the post WWII housing boom in the US, Florida houses were built one story, flat or almost flat roofs, made of concrete block, with a "hurricane belt" of rebar that goes all around the house to basically hold it together. When we tried to add on a room, it took 3x as long as expected to take down the wall because they hit the hurricane belt and couldn't cut through it. I don't know about newer houses or even what the code is for house strength.

Hi Lewis and everyone. Was reading so many of the comments re hurricanes and send my condolences to all in the past that have lost anything that affected their lives from a devastating hurricane. Born in Massachusetts in 1954, I grew up with some, mostly the nor'easters that as a child, taught me early on about the power of nature and how comforting it was to be safe in my house. I never kept track of how many hurricanes, storms, blizzards ,etc. I saw. When I was 23, I moved with my husband and son to sunny Orlando, FL and tacked on a few more memories, especially remembering 2004 where hurricanes were coming in bunches. But living inland, again felt safe in my cement block home. Lost a tree, fence and finally a roof, but nothing totally catastropic like my neighbor 3 houses away who;s house was struck ny lightning and burned to the ground when we all thought the worst was over. After 30 years of Orlando-I moved to the West Coast in Largo to take care of my mom who passed in 2016. I just turned 70 today, actually, and Hurrican season started June 1 and we will all continue holding our breath until Nov 30th, just like we do every year and pray we will be ok. Living alone and also living in a mobile home now, I will always evacuate-no questioning that at all. Just keep my fingers crossed my little abode is still found waiting for me when I get home. To all of you that could be affected THIS season, (which by most indications is expected to be a very bust one), my thoughts and prayers are with you all. Let us all be safe. Hey Lewis, Consider all storm "seasons" when planning your US trip, please. Peace!

I live in North Carolina close to the South Carolina border. Hugo happened when is was a kid but I’ll never forget it. My mom and I spent the night stuffing sheets and anything else into places where water could get in. I remember as the eye passed over us and that was the weirdest thing to experience. A brief moment of relative peace before the storm carried on. Since we lived outside of city limits, we had no water for about two weeks except for getting it from the fire station.

Grew up in Florida, so didn't begin to worry about hurricanes until they reached Cat 3 or higher. However, my husband from Tennessee hadn't seen St Augustine Florida (oldest US fort, amazing architecture, fun ghost tours, nice B&Bs, a lighthouse - a fun place to visit). So we decided to do a 3 day stay in St Augustine in 2022 before going to see my parents more inland for a couple of days. Then came Hurricane Ian. We had to evacuate the B&B (all of St Augustine, really) the next morning and hauled butt to my parents' house to ride it out with them. The worst was the wind overnight, but in the morning, all the lakes had busted their banks, major intersections were completely under water - and that was INLAND! Can't imagine what the folks in Ft Myers lived through. Landed as a Cat 4.

so with hurricanes, they're obviously rotating right? so when they make landfall one side of the hurricane the wind is blowing inland and pushing a massive amount of water inland as well (the storm surge). that's where the most destruction happens.

Yes. These storms with their wind and flooding do still happen. Good drainage systems can't always keep up with huge amounts of rainfall in relatively short periods of time. If the ground is already saturated from previous rainfall or dry and hard from lack of previous rainfall, it cannot absorb the rain. Then there is the wind, which is relentless and can last for hours. Terrible damage. I've lived through a few over the decades.

I love how everybody just forgets about hurricane Michael. That hit the Florida panhandle as a category 5 hurricane in 2018. killing 75 people causing over $25 billion in damages between Florida Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. It didn’t even get downgrade to a tropical storm till after it went through Atlanta. It completely destroyed half a Panama City, Moody Air Force Base, Mexico Beach, Cape sandblast, Fort Saint Joe, and Apalachicola in the Florida panhandle. it completely destroyed and leveled hundreds of acres of natural forest. It also was a first category 5 hurricane, to hit the state of Florida since hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Lived in Louisiana for 3 years been through several its an experience for sure.

6:30 We are currently having a lot of tornadoes and hurricane season is just starting. There will be at least half a dozen hurricanes. That means winds of over 70 mph, below that it's a tropical storm. The wind contributes to the damage but unlike a tornado which is about wind speed, a hurricane does damage through water. The torrential rains on one side and storm surge on the other where the wind basically blows the ocean onshore makes for devastating floods.

Hurricanes are huge and cause storm surges, which is the ocean/gulf/coastal waters coming onto land. Surges and high winds make hurricanes particularly devastating. Hurricanes are bigger and travel longer distances, so they typically cause more damage, but what's also a mess is that tornadoes can also occur in an area impacted by a hurricane. I'm from North Carolina so I've seen many hurricanes and constantly check on my family during storms.

I was born and raised in North Carolina, specifically Wilmington. And i can definitely say as someone who has seen quite a few hurricanes that they are insane! I plan on going to college for Meteorology when i get out of Highschool as I have always had a interest in weather.

America is certainly a land of stark contrasts. We have some of the best views and parks anywhere in the world, yet we also have the worst weather anywhere. Between earthquakes, mudslides, tornadoes, hurricanes, ice storms, drought, flooding etc there is no nation on Earth which feels the brunt of mother nature's wrath like the United States. Still, it's a great place to live.

I experienced Irma as well.

I lived on the coast of North Carolina (Wilmington) for 25 years. The worst hurricanes we had were Hurricanes' Bertha and Fran, which happened about 1 month or so apart. We had barely gotten power back from Bertha, when Fran hit. Fran was significantly worse. Very scary to go through, especially when it happens at night. I'm sure that's the same with tornadoes (hard to see at night lol).

If you look at the map, you'll notice that North Carolina sticks out a bit (Outer Banks). When hurricanes turn north and run up the east coast, NC is the first land in the way. '95-'97, we were getting 2 hurricanes a year. The hurricane is hundreds of miles across. There are videos of US Navy Aircraft that fly through them with weather equipment.

How many tornadoes occur in the U.S. each year? About 1,200 tornadoes hit the U.S. yearly

I went through Hugo when I was a teenager. I was in North Carolina near the South Carolina border about 30 miles NW of Charlotte at the time. Usually hurricanes weaken once they hit land but this one seemed to pick up strength and just sat there and dumped rain with high winds. We lost power for about two weeks. We were lucky though. Some of my neighbors had trees through their houses. Many lost power for even longer. Roads were impassable due to being flooding, downed trees everywhere plus downed power lines which were especially dangerous. One thing I remember was the wind was insane. The wind speeds were scary.

I had moved out of Homestead,FL 2 years before Andrew. I had friends and family that lost everything. Everything was gone,just wiped away. It was a very sad time.

Hurricane Hugo in Charleston SC came over my house. We decided to weather it out in our house. It was very scary and trees fell in our home. BUT the most peaceful thing I've ever experienced was when the eye of the hurricane came over our home. The sky was totally clear, there were no lights so the stars were so bright. Then the other side of the eye came over and the storm started back up. There were at least six tornadoes that were spun off the hurricane around our home.

We have been through a few good ones here in S W Florida, we moved to the Marco Island/Naples area around the time of Hurricane Andrew, half of our roof was lost during hurricane Wilma in 2005, and Hurricane Irma also did a bit of damage but we got an almost direct hit by Hurricane Ian and the damage was incredible, there is still a lot of work going on to rebuild and recover almost two years after. The official 2024 Hurricane season has just started, we have been updating and restocking our emegency kit so we are ready, 'Hope for the best prepare for the worst" is the name of the game.

I remember hearing one of the old timers talk about Camille when i was living in Nelson County, Va. He said his dad tossed him and his brother up on the roof in the rain because mudslides were taking out houses and anything ground level, and that was the last time he saw his parents. Absolutely devastating to the county, just like the guy in the video said.

Hurricane season is EVERY year, but the severity of the each storm varies. I grew up in coastal Virginia, and you just get used to it. I can only remember two hurricanes where we lost power for weeks. They definitely happen several times each year on the east coast. The west coast never gets them because the Pacific Ocean is too cold.

After Hurricane Fran at Wrightsville Beach, NC, the sand was pushed so hard (and high) off the beach, that it created dunes of sand on the first block from beach, taller than the houses themselves. It was crazy. The water level rose to 2nd story of homes that were one to 2 blocks from beach. Wrightsville Beach is just a strip of land like an island or very thin peninsula with the Intracoastal Waterway on the other side of the street. You'd have to look it up on the map to understand the area and how it was affected.

One of the beautiful things about these events is the people come together afterwards to help each other out. Rescue missions and stuff.

I have lived through many hurricanes on the east coast. From Gloria to sandy and all in between. Our house was struck by lightning during Gloria. I was out walking during hurricane bob and had an entire tree fly by me... I turned around and went home at that point. Samdy was a whopper. Just absolute destruction from that one. My parents home was about 5 miles from the shore and completely innudated with water. Crazy times

Storms are everywhere but if you live on the coast or tornado alley you are taking a big gamble. I lived in Florida, Texas and NY and have lived through 3 hurricanes including Hurricane Sandy. 7 days with no power.

Galveston, Texas native here 🙋🏼‍♀️ The 8,000 death from from the 1900 storm is a low est. because from my understanding they didn’t count slaves. I’ve heard estimates that include them to be as high as 12,000. If you wanna see the tide, you can look up flood markers online. Most buildings downtown are pre-1900 & have markers that show the level of the storm surge. Hurricane Ike in ‘08 was actually the WORST storm surge we’ve recorded.

I live in Mississippi. My oldest son works in the Gulf of Mexico. YES..... Hurricanes happen every year.... including NOW. We also have to deal with tornadoes with the hurricanes at the same time.

Part of the reason Hurricane Andrew in 1992 caused as much damage as it did is the fact that it had been over 30 years since the last major hurricane had hit Florida. Which due to that a large portion of the population in the southern part of Florida acted like it was no big deal and did not take any kind of precautions to protect their homes and businesses. I was living in part of Florida at the time and I still live in Florida and if the large patio door had not been boarded up with multiple sheets of plywood the large tree in the backyard that got uprooted in the middle of the night would have gone through it and probably have badly injured or killed me and most of my family.

Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana in '05 was nuts in every way. They're crazy lucky it was only a Cat at landfall. I was down there for a short period helping get temporary communications to emergency and public service locations. I saw marks of standing water over 15ft up on buildings well inland from the coast. Boats sitting on highway overpasses. Houses that looked superficially mostly intact, until you realized they were sitting BESIDE their foundations. Seeing such things on the news or in videos is one thing, seeing it in person was an eye opener.

I wei went thru hurricane Hugo that hit SC as a kid in 1989. The side wall detached from the roof and laid on the ground then came back up into the original position. That was spooky. We (Mom, Dad & 7 kids) got out & went to a neighbors house. In SC we don't have many basements especially close to the cost.

Growing up in Florida, I learned from a young age - if there's a hurricane coming near you, you run. My parents always left, even if there was no official evacuation, and I do the same with my children. Especially now, these storms have gotten more insane, holding their strength over land for way longer than they are supposed to.

To answer your question about how many hurricanes happen per year- after a certain point when the hurricanes started getting human names, they start with A and then go through the alphabet, alternating between "boy" names and "girl" names (if I remember correctly. So hurricane sandy in 2012 was the 19th hurricane that year. They don't always make landfall before the stop being categorized as a hurricane and they don't always land in the same spots, nor do they always follow the same paths.

I am 73 and have lived thru many hurricanes. I remember watching the boardwalks wash down Atlantic Avenue. My sister’s home was hit by 3 hurricanes in a row and lost many trees and small structures. Their neighbors roof was in their front yard. The Us usually gets about 10 a year.

The big difference between tornados and hurricanes?- you usually have days warning they are coming to prepare or evacuate- tornados you have minutes to take cover.. Hurricanes sadly come just about every years multiple times too! Some years we don’t have any..