Billion-dollar disasters

Eastern Tornadoes and Severe Storms

November 9 to 11, 2002 · Severe Storm · $1.3 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $1.3 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($720 million at the time) and 28 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 344 most significant severe storm episodes filed in these dates, colored by kind.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

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The toll

Losses, 2024 dollars
$1.3 billion
Losses at the time
$720 million
Deaths
28

The losses and deaths are NCEI’s, counting everything the disaster did. The episodes below are only what the Weather Service filed in its Storm Events record, which counts damage differently and often not at all, so the two never add up and are shown apart.

By state, as filed

StateEventsDeathsInjuriesDamage filed
Ohio152525$98 million
Mississippi41155$61 million
Tennessee1761787$17 million
Georgia81016$12 million
Alabama4212100$11 million
Kentucky12600$1.4 million
Pennsylvania14119$1.3 million
Arkansas1500$652,000
Indiana4603$550,000
Oregon100$500,000
South Carolina5302$473,000
West Virginia1700$226,000
Virginia3600$178,000
Florida600$90,000
Maryland100$75,000
North Carolina4100$53,000
Louisiana200$37,000
Missouri500$25,000
New York100$15,000
Illinois1900$12,000
District of Columbia100$2,000
Texas200
Utah100

Episode by episode

More

Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 2002Tornadoes in 2002

Sources

NOAA NCEI, U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2025), https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.