How Hurricane Maria stacks up against other deadly, destructive storms

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Devastating hurricanes in U.S. history
From Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Andrew to Hurricane Harvey, these storms will go down in history.

A new report found that Hurricane Maria killed nearly 3,000 people in Puerto Rico, making it one of the deadliest in the nation's history.



With so many ways to measure a hurricane -- from sustained wind speeds, to total cost to lives lost -- it can be hard to quantify what makes a hurricane historic. In 2017, FiveThirtyEight examined some of the costliest, deadliest modern tropical storms, putting together a list of tropical storms that have caused at least $1 billion damage since 1980.



The updated numbers for Maria make it deadlier than any on the list.



Here's a look at how Maria stacks up against the 10 deadliest of those storms.



Maria


Date: Sept. 20, 2017


Estimated Damage: $140 billion


Estimated Deaths: 2,975



Katrina


Date: Aug. 25, 2005


Estimated Damage: $160 billion


Estimated Deaths: 1,833



Sandy


Date: Oct. 30, 2012


Estimated Damage: $70.2 billion


Estimated Deaths: 159



Rita


Date: Sept. 20, 2005


Estimated Damage: $23.7 billion


Estimated Deaths: 119



Ike



Date: Sept. 12, 2008


Estimated Damage: $34.8 billion


Estimated Deaths: 112



Hugo


Date: Sept. 21, 1989


Estimated Damage: $18.2 billion


Estimated Deaths: 86



Floyd


Date: Sept. 14, 1999


Estimated Damage: $9.7 billion


Estimated Deaths: 77



Harvey


Date: Aug. 25, 2017


Estimated Damage: Could be as much as $180 billion


Estimated Deaths: At least 70



Juan


Date: Oct. 27, 1985


Estimated Damage: $3.5 billion



Estimated Deaths: 63



Andrew


Date: Aug. 23, 1992


Estimated Damage: $47.8 billion


Estimated Deaths: 61



Ivan


Date: Sept. 12, 2004


Estimated Damage: $27.1 billion


Estimated Deaths: 57

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