2023 Becomes Most Expensive Year for U.S. Natural Disasters on Record
On average, the Carolinas see a hurricane landfall every three to four years. The last hurricane to make landfall along our coastline was Isaias in 2020 - over three years ago.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After an anxiety-filled few days, former Category 5 Hurricane Lee has finally made its long-forecast turn northward.
Rough seas, rip currents, and erosion all pose threats to the Outer Banks and other coastal communities, but the Carolinas are essentially in the clear.
Our friends up north may not be so lucky.
Howard Gray Park IV / New Haven, CT: “There is going to be a surge in here,” says Howard Gray Park IV of New Haven, CT, as he points at the bay his sailboat is moored in. “There are going to be some serious waves in here and that breakwater right there doesn’t really protect the surges.”
Tropical Storm and Hurricane Watches have been posted across much of the Northeast as multiple inches of rain and several feet of storm surge may inundate coastal communities from New York to Maine.
“The fact that it’s a wide-reaching storm, I’m worried that even if it’s not a direct landfall, it’s going to impact a lot of folks,” storm chaser Mark Boylan laments. “That means power outages inland as the winds are going to go way past the coast.”
New England is preparing for what could be its first tropical landfall in over two years, but that’s not keeping tourists like Jack Markey away.
“We’ve driven in it before. We’ve been to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and drove home through a tropical storm, which wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but we’ll just tough it out.”
The Carolinas have dodged the worst this time around, but hurricane season is far from finished. Over half of all hurricanes and tropical storms form at this point in the year or later.
And – we’re due.
On average, the Carolinas see a hurricane landfall every three to four years. The last hurricane to make landfall along our coastline was Isaias in 2020 – over three years ago.
More than three months remain in 2023, but it’s already the most expensive on record.
According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there have been at least 23 one-billion-dollar disasters so far, totaling over $58 billion – and that’s not even including damage from Idalia and future damage from Lee.
