Billion-dollar disasters

Hurricane Gloria

September 26 to 28, 1985 · Tropical Cyclone · $2.5 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the tropical cyclone disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $2.5 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($856 million at the time) and 11 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 4 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
$2.5 billion
Losses at the time
$856 million
Deaths
11

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
Arkansas200$25,000
New Jersey100$250
Massachusetts100$250
Hawaii100

Episode by episode

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.