Billion-dollar disasters

Western/Eastern Severe Weather and Flooding

December 1, 1997 to February 28, 1998 · Severe Storm · $2.0 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $2.0 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($1.0 billion at the time) and 132 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 400 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
$2.0 billion
Losses at the time
$1.0 billion
Deaths
132

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
Florida18443288$355 million
California1691412$155 million
Texas589421$147 million
Mississippi8604$33 million
Louisiana113137$31 million
Tennessee5170$21 million
North Carolina96015$15 million
South Carolina4017$3.3 million
Alabama65211$3.3 million
New York5900$2.8 million
Georgia5201$2.7 million
Virginia11700$1.7 million
Arkansas1523$1.3 million
Maryland4000$1.2 million
West Virginia1200$595,000
Ohio5200$591,000
Rhode Island1100$408,000
Pennsylvania600$240,000
Oklahoma3700$139,000
Kentucky1910$128,000
Vermont100$80,000
Massachusetts6501$70,000
Puerto Rico810$70,000
Alaska100$50,000
Connecticut100$25,000
Missouri700
New Jersey101

Episode by episode

More

Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 1997Tornadoes in 1997

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.