Billion-dollar disasters

Severe Storms and Tornadoes

April 27 to 28, 2002 · Severe Storm · $3.7 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $3.7 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($2.1 billion at the time) and 7 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 343 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
$3.7 billion
Losses at the time
$2.1 billion
Deaths
7

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
Maryland243122$125 million
Ohio6802$46 million
Kentucky104136$20 million
Illinois53122$13 million
Virginia64017$11 million
Missouri33116$5.5 million
Pennsylvania7302$4.1 million
Tennessee90031$3.3 million
Indiana22012$826,000
New York1900$685,000
South Carolina1000$553,000
Georgia4201$277,000
Alabama3500$255,000
West Virginia2000$133,000
Delaware200$100,000
Texas6201$63,000
Kansas1400$40,000
North Carolina2200$35,000
Arkansas2300$25,000
Mississippi600$22,000
New Mexico300$18,000
Florida601$6,000
New Jersey400
Colorado300
Oklahoma300
Iowa300
Nebraska200
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.