For many families in 2024, the holidays will look different due to a devastating hurricane season. From homes being destroyed to lives lost, this season left a trail of destruction stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the East Coast.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends Saturday, Nov. 30, has been one of the busiest on record. Meteorologists said 11 hurricanes formed, compared to the typical seven.
One of the earliest and most destructive storms was Hurricane Beryl, which made history as the first Category 4 hurricane to form in June. The storm first slammed into islands in the Caribbean and later became the earliest-ever Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on July 1. A week later, Beryl made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane.
In September, Hurricane Helene became the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, claiming more than 200 lives. Helene caused nearly $49 billion in damage across several states, including North Carolina, Florida and Georgia.
Homes were destroyed, drinking water systems were knocked offline, farms were wiped out and large areas of forest were decimated. In rural areas of the Carolinas, where flooding is rare, communities were under several feet of water. The effects of the storm were felt as far north as the Great Lakes, where heavy rainfall triggered widespread flooding.
As the season continued into October, Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified, reaching wind speeds of 180 miles per hour. Milton became one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico, second only to Hurricane Rita in 2005. The storm came on the heels of Helene, compounding the already severe damage in some regions of Florida.
Even as the season neared its end, another storm formed. Hurricane Rafael, which nearly became the strongest November hurricane on record in the Gulf, reached winds of up to 120 miles per hour as it hovered over Cuba.
With each storm’s passing, recovery efforts followed. But with back-to-back hurricanes like Helene and Milton, disaster relief efforts were stretched thin. FEMA’s disaster relief fund is now down to less than $5 billion, according to agency testimony during the week of Nov. 18. The Biden administration requested nearly $100 billion in disaster aid from Congress, with $40 billion of that earmarked for replenishing FEMA’s disaster relief fund.
While there is relief with the official end of the hurricane season, The Weather Channel cautioned that just because the season is over doesn’t mean no more storms can form. While over 97% of Atlantic storm activity typically occurs between June and September, outlier storms can still wreak havoc.
