Southern Derecho and Severe Storms

May 1 to 6, 1989 · Severe Storm · $1.4 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $1.4 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($552 million at the time) and 21 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 50 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

Open the live radar

The toll

Losses, 2024 dollars: $1.4 billion
Losses at the time: $552 million
Deaths: 21

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
North Carolina	88	7	108	$161 million
Florida	17	0	5	$28 million
South Carolina	65	2	56	$7.8 million
Georgia	47	0	28	$3.5 million
Mississippi	20	0	1	$275,000
Virginia	55	0	15	$250,000
Kentucky	4	0	1	$250,000
Louisiana	85	0	1	$28,000
Texas	324	1	33
Oklahoma	59	0	0
Kansas	15	0	0
Arkansas	9	0	4
Tennessee	7	0	0
Alabama	6	0	0
Illinois	5	0	0
Maryland	5	0	0
Indiana	3	0	0
South Dakota	3	0	0
Pennsylvania	2	0	1
Nebraska	1	0	0
Colorado	1	0	0
North Dakota	1	0	0
Iowa	1	0	0

Episode by episode

Every billion-dollar disaster Every storm of 1989 Tornadoes in 1989

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.