From June 1 through Nov. 30 each year, the Bahamas and the coastal United States comes under threat from the ferocious winds and floodwaters of the hurricanes that form in the Atlantic Ocean basin.
Five years ago this week, one of the most devastating storms ever to hit U.S. soil, Hurricane Katrina, all but destroyed parts of New Orleans, as the surging ocean waters it pushed to land overtopped the city’s protective levees, inundating a vast region, displacing millions of residents and killing more than 1,800 people. [Infographic: Hurricane Katrina History and Numbers]
While Katrina is the most remembered of these swirling storms – its name now infamous – it certainly isn’t alone in causing significant death and destruction to areas of the United States. Following are eight of the most destructive storms in recorded U.S. history from 1900 until present day.
