Billion-dollar disasters

Tornadoes, Severe Storms, Floods

March 27 to April 7, 1984 · Severe Storm · $1.9 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $1.9 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($603 million at the time) and 80 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 46 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
$1.9 billion
Losses at the time
$603 million
Deaths
80

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 Carolina4942805$351 million
South Carolina7118464$230 million
Arkansas3304$53 million
Georgia4704$550,000
Illinois1300$525,000
Mississippi1606$250,000
Texas8600$58,000
Louisiana6300$55,000
Kansas700$28,000
Alabama3401$28,000
Pennsylvania201$25,000
Missouri3200$250
Florida1000
Oklahoma800
Kentucky800
Virginia300
Maryland300
Idaho300
Tennessee200
Delaware200
Massachusetts100
New Mexico100

Episode by episode

More

Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 1984Tornadoes in 1984

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.