Hurricane Elena
One of the tropical cyclone disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $3.8 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($1.3 billion at the time) and 4 deaths.
What the offices filed during it
The 10 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
The toll
- Losses, 2024 dollars
- $3.8 billion
- Losses at the time
- $1.3 billion
- Deaths
- 4
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
| State | Events | Deaths | Injuries | Damage filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 14 | 0 | 0 | $2.8 million |
| Nebraska | 16 | 0 | 0 | $575,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 3 | 0 | 0 | $250,000 |
| Mississippi | 3 | 0 | 0 | $250,000 |
| South Dakota | 2 | 0 | 0 | $5,000 |
| Tennessee | 4 | 0 | 0 | $250 |
| New York | 6 | 0 | 0 |
Episode by episode
- Tornado in Florida, August 28, 1985
- Tornado and Hail in New York, August 30, 1985
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Pennsylvania, August 30, 1985
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Tennessee, August 30, 1985
- Tornadoes in Florida, August 31, 1985
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Florida, September 1, 1985
- Tornadoes in Mississippi, September 2, 1985
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Nebraska, September 2, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Nebraska, September 4, 1985
- Tornadoes in South Dakota, September 4, 1985
More
Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 1985The 1985 hurricane seasonTornadoes in 1985
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.