Billion-dollar disasters

Hurricane Bob

August 18 to 20, 1991 · Tropical Cyclone · $3.5 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the tropical cyclone disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $3.5 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($1.5 billion at the time) and 18 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 11 most significant tropical cyclone 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
$3.5 billion
Losses at the time
$1.5 billion
Deaths
18

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
North Carolina700$258,000
Indiana300$28,000
Maryland1000$25,000
Ohio600$25,000
Michigan1200$3,000
New Jersey100$3,000
Florida200$250
New York200
South Dakota100

Episode by episode

More

Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 1991The 1991 hurricane seasonTornadoes in 1991

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.