Two hurricanes that recently hit the U.S.’s mainland within weeks of each other set records for their power and destruction.
Hurricane Harvey made its first landfall in Texas on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane. It stalled and dumped record-setting amounts of rain, most noticeably on the city of Houston. It then backed off into the Gulf of Mexico before making its second and final landfall in Louisiana on Aug. 30.
Hurricane Irma battered the Caribbean before making landfall on the Florida Keys’ Cudjoe Key Sunday morning as a Category 4 hurricane. It moved to mainland Florida later in the day, moving up the state’s west coast before moving into Georgia and South Carolina.
Here’s the story of each hurricane told in numbers.
Harvey:
- 70 people are confirmed killed by Harvey, according to NBC.
- AccuWeather President Joel Meyers estimated damage caused by Harvey could total $190 billion.
- Harvey managed 130 mile per hour sustained winds when it made its first landfall in Texas
- At least 51.88 inches of rain were measured by a gauge outside of Houston, a new record for rainfall brought to a single area by a storm in the contiguous U.S.
- Over 80 percent of Harvey’s flood victims don’t have flood insurance
- 28,000 square miles around Houston was covered in water at the height of the flooding, about the size of Lake Michigan, the Las Angeles Times reports.
- Thirteen superfund sites, former industrial zones deal with large amounts of pollution, were flooded or damaged, creating serious environmental fears in Texas.
- 32,000 people took shelter in Red Cross and affiliated shelters at the height of Harvey, according to the Red Cross.
Irma:
- Twelve people are dead in the U.S. as a result of the storm, with that number likely to grow. At least 37 more people died throughout the Caribbean, according to ABC News.
- Meyers estimates Irma caused $100 billion in damage.
- Over 16 million people in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are potentially without power, according to WaPo.
- Sustained 185 mile per hour winds for a total of 37 hours, the longest ever sustained 185 mph wind speed for any storm on record, CNN reports.
- 6 feet of storm surge hit Jacksonville,, flooding parts of the city and setting a storm surge record for the area, WaPo reports.
- 16 inches of rainfall were recorded in Fort Pierce, the highest of any U.S. area in Irma’s path.
- 6.3 million Floridians were ordered to evacuate the state, potentially a record number of evacuations for the U.S.
- 70,000 square miles were covered by Irma’s tropical storm force winds at one time, about the size of the entire state of Oklahoma.
- 208,000 people sought shelter in government or Red Cross facilities at the height of the storm.
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