Climate Change-Fueled Hurricanes Are Increasingly Destructive and Costly for U.S. Communities

Stronger, more frequent, and costly hurricanes are reshaping lives across the United States—increasing fatalities, destroying homes and businesses, disrupting schools and hospitals, and forcing entire communities to rebuild from scratch. The ripple effects of these storms stretch far beyond their widening perimeters: As nearshore coastal habitats are battered or washed away, the local economies that depend on them and the flood protections they provide are weakened as well. These more intense and destructive storms are becoming the new normal, underscoring the real and rising costs of a changing climate for more and more Americans.

Hurricanes have long been a danger to U.S. communities, but they are increasingly destructive as the planet heats up.² Hurricanes are giant “heat engines” that draw energy from warm ocean water.³ As global temperatures rise, so do sea surface temperatures—providing more fuel for storms to grow stronger, wetter, and more dangerous than they were just a few decades ago. Rising global temperatures warm ocean surfaces and intensify evaporation, allowing tropical storms to pull in more heat and moisture. The most damaging hurricanes in the United States are now occurring three times more often than they did a century ago, and since 1980, the proportion of major hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean has doubled.⁴ As ocean and air temperatures continue to rise, the risks associated with hurricanes only grow more severe.

Higher wind speeds

Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida in September 2024 with top wind speeds estimated at 140 mph, intensified rapidly over Gulf waters that reached up to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above average temperatures.⁵ Warmer oceans can increase hurricane wind speeds by up to 5 percent for every 1 degree Celsius of ocean warming, which can boost total storm damage by up to 50 percent.⁶ In Helene’s case, elevated ocean temperatures likely led to a 50 percent to 100 percent increase in destructive power.⁷

Higher levels of rainfall

Notably, warmer seas also produce wetter storms. A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor—about 7 percent more per 1 degree Celsius of ocean warming—leading to heavier precipitation.⁸ Climate models show that hurricanes will deliver 10 percent to 15 percent more precipitation by the end of the decade, leading to more devastating floods such as those seen during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Hurricane Florence in 2018, and Hurricane Imelda in 2019.⁹ Attribution studies have found that rainfall from hurricanes such as Helene, Harvey, and Katrina was significantly intensified by human-caused climate change.¹⁰ Helene’s rainfall, for example, was estimated to be 10 percent higher than it would have been in a cooler climate.

Rapid intensification

Climate change is also increasing the odds of rapid intensification—a dangerous phenomenon in which hurricanes strengthen quickly before landfall, giving communities less time to prepare.¹¹ Helene was one of 10 Atlantic storms since 1950 to intensify by at least 40 mph within 24 hours of landfall, with five occurring since 2017.¹² This trend is linked to human-driven warming, which makes rapid intensification more likely. The maximum intensity of hurricanes is projected to increase by about 5 percent during the 21st century. With continued warming, the proportion of tropical cyclones that reach intense levels is projected to increase globally.¹³

Yet while rapid intensification is increasing, scientists have observed that hurricanes are moving more slowly across their paths, giving them more time to dump rain, batter infrastructure, and cause deadly flooding.¹⁴ The exact cause of this stalling effect is still being studied, but some researchers point to warming in the Arctic and midlatitudes as potentially altering global atmospheric circulation patterns.¹⁵ Whatever the cause, communities increasingly face longer-lasting and more punishing storms.

Rising sea levels

Rising sea levels—driven by expanding warmer waters and melting land ice—further magnify damage. Coastal communities face higher storm surges that push further inland and exacerbate flooding, even from less intense storms.¹⁶ Since 1900, global sea levels have risen by more than half a foot, and projections suggest 1 foot to 2.5 feet of rise this century.¹⁷ These changes have already worsened storm impacts: Hurricane Katrina’s flood levels in 2005 were estimated to be up to 60 percent higher than they would have been in 1900, and the sea level rise when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 made severe flooding three times more likely.¹⁸

Altogether, these climate-driven shifts make hurricanes more dangerous. While the total number of hurricanes each year may not significantly increase, their strength, rainfall, and destructive potential already have—and will continue to do so in a warming world. Limiting climate change and its effects requires eliminating net greenhouse gas emissions, including the pollution from burning fossil fuels. Meanwhile, adaptation and resilience strategies are key to protect lives, homes, communities, and infrastructure from future storms.

Hurricanes are the deadliest, most destructive weather disasters recorded in U.S. history.²⁹ These storms wreak havoc—ripping apart homes, flooding streets, knocking out power—but the most insidious effects unfold slowly and silently. Research shows that hurricanes leave behind a yearslong trail of premature death, disease, and disrupted health care, each killing up to 11,000 people on average when considering indirect impacts over time.³⁰ Hurricanes also erode survivors’ mental health, hitting hardest those with existing conditions.³¹

With hurricanes, the health emergency begins immediately. Windborne debris and rising water can cause electrocution, blunt force trauma, and drowning.³² Toxic floodwaters—often laden with sewage, gasoline, heavy metals, and industrial chemicals—can cause skin infections, gastrointestinal illness, and respiratory distress. These dangers are particularly common among vulnerable populations, including people with limited financial resources, people with disabilities, and Black and Latino communities.³³ In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, emergency room visits increased for carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia, intestinal infectious diseases, pregnancy complications, and more.³⁴

Hurricanes also trigger health system failures.³⁵ Clinics, hospitals, and nursing homes may lose power, be flooded, or be forced to evacuate patients and staff. In 2024, Hurricane Helene wiped out health infrastructure across the Southeast and disrupted a facility supplying IV fluids nationwide—delaying health care for those far outside its path.³⁶ Power outages strand patients who rely on oxygen, insulin, or refrigerated medications. Damaged or flooded roads and overwhelmed emergency medical service (EMS) systems delay emergency response and compound preventable harms.³⁷ 

Health burdens from hurricanes can persist for years. Research has shown elevated rates of heart conditions, respiratory illness, and nervous system disorders following hurricanes—especially among older adults and medically vulnerable populations.³⁸ A landmark study on Hurricane Maria found that, while the official death toll was 64 people, the true death toll was more than 4,600 when considering both direct effects—such as flying debris—and indirect effects—such as the loss or delay of necessary medical services, worsening of chronic conditions, and more.³⁹ More than a decade after Hurricane Katrina, 1 in 6 survivors still reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.⁴⁰ 

Hurricanes are no longer isolated crises; they are escalating public health disasters. Just as community, state, and federal leaders must plan for increased wind and rainfall, they must also prepare for cascading, chronic health effects by ensuring that hospitals are resilient, medications remain accessible, and mental health care is integrated into disaster response. Taking immediate action to strengthen the climate resilience of the health care system can reduce the devastating and deadly impacts of hurricanes that will otherwise continue long after skies clear. 

Hurricanes have caused more than $1.5 trillion in damages since 1980, making them the costliest category of climate-related disasters in U.S. history.⁴¹ With average losses per hurricane already at $23 billion, their increasing intensity is a massive economic concern. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey was the most expensive hurricane ever recorded in the United States.⁴² It caused up to $190 billion in damages and was the deadliest hurricane in Texas since 1919. Harvey displaced more than 30,000 people, damaged or destroyed more than 200,000 homes or businesses, and prompted more than 17,000 rescues.⁴³

In 2024, hurricanes caused $127 billion to $129 billion in economic losses.⁴⁴ According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Centers for Environmental Information, hurricanes Helene and Milton inflicted an estimated combined loss of about $113 billion in damages, costing roughly $79.6 billion and around $34.3 billion, respectively.⁴⁵ An AccuWeather estimate placed Helene’s true cost between $225 billion and $250 billion, factoring in long-term disruptions such as extended power outages, business interruptions, infrastructure reconstruction, health care costs, and sectorwide losses for certain key industries.⁴⁶ Sector by sector, hurricanes can have massive impacts. In 2020 and 2021, hurricanes caused $580 million in losses to Louisiana’s commercial fishing and seafood industry alone.⁴⁷

These storm impacts reach far beyond coastal cities. Hurricane Helene unleashed record-breaking rainfall across the southern Appalachians, triggering flooding and landslides—even in Asheville, North Carolina, which was previously deemed a “climate haven.”⁴⁸ In North Carolina alone, an estimated 73,700 homes were damaged.⁴⁹ Regionally, Helene caused sewage failures, released wastewater, and inflicted $3.5 billion to $7 billion in flood damages.⁵⁰ These cascading effects become more common as warmer oceans supercharge hurricanes, pushing extreme rainfall and destructive flooding inland.

As hurricanes pose greater risks, they increasingly elevate insurance costs, leaving many people and businesses unable to afford coverage. Research indicates that insurance premiums jumped 33 percent between 2020 and 2023, with a strong association between price and local disaster risks.⁵¹ In the face of devastating hurricane seasons and other extreme weather events, private insurers are scaling back coverage or pulling out of high-risk markets altogether.⁵² As gaps in insurance affordability and availability grow, families must weigh whether to settle for insufficient coverage or forgo it entirely—leaving them vulnerable to losing their homes, investments, and even access to future credit when disaster strikes.⁵³ The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) provides affordable coverage in some high-risk areas but is already overburdened.⁵⁴ For Helene and Milton alone, the NFIP is expected to pay out more than $5 billion.⁵⁵ These impacts are not isolated. They ripple through regional economies, leaving businesses struggling, markets destabilized, and communities unable to recover.

Working-class, low-income, Black, Indigenous, Latino, and other underserved communities are especially vulnerable to hurricane devastation.⁵⁶ Often, these communities are concentrated in areas with a high risk of disasters. About 70 percent of Superfund sites sit a mile from public housing—often home to low-income communities of color—with 60 percent in areas vulnerable to flooding, storm surge, and other extreme weather.⁵⁷ In 2023, nearly 71 percent of families in public housing units were headed by individuals who identified as nonwhite—including Black, Indigenous, and Latino people, among others.⁵⁸ In total, more than 40 percent of those affected by hurricanes and 33 percent of those affected by flooding are from low-income, working-class, and underserved communities near sites contaminated by pollution.⁵⁹

Such communities, alongside those in rural areas, are often riddled with aging infrastructure, face financial barriers to storm-proofing and safe evacuation, and bear the worst climate impacts.⁶⁰ In the eight counties hit hardest by Hurricane Harvey, just 17 percent of homeowners had flood insurance—coverage more common among wealthier households.⁶¹ A nearly 15-year study analyzing the long-term wealth of families across the United States found that in counties with damages of at least $10 billion, white households—mainly those that received greater rebuilding aid—gained about $126,000 in net wealth over the course of the study, while Black and Hispanic households lost $27,000 and $29,000, respectively.⁶² In Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—where per capita income falls below that of Mississippi, the poorest U.S. state—Indigenous and Latino communities have endured some of the United States’ strongest recorded tropical cyclones.⁶³

Recovery is a similarly unequal process: Lower-income families face long-term displacement, income loss, food shortages, and housing instability.⁶⁴ Rural areas struggle with timely emergency response due to limited broadband and communication networks as well as scarce emergency response resources or staff.⁶⁵ Many rural governments may also lack the capacity to manage large-scale disasters, despite depending heavily on agriculture—an industry highly vulnerable to storm damage.⁶⁶ In Florida, Hurricane Milton significantly affected rural, agriculture-based communities, causing more than $190 million in initial losses for farmers and ranchers.⁶⁷ National agricultural losses from Milton may even exceed $642 million.⁶⁸

Unfair housing and infrastructure policies have driven many Black and Latino families to live in low-lying, poorly protected areas.⁶⁹ Historical practices such as redlining, racial segregation in neighborhoods, and disinvestment have concentrated communities of color in areas with aging infrastructure, higher flood risk, and fewer resources.⁷⁰ Additionally, historical discrimination has led to limited wealth and savings.⁷¹ As a result, these communities often face greater damage during disasters and may not have the financial means to recover. While affluent residents may relocate to safer areas, poorer, disproportionately nonwhite communities remain in harm’s way—or are displaced into even more vulnerable, high-risk areas. Working-class, low-income Black families are also more likely to live near hazardous industrial sites, putting them at heightened risk from chemical spills and toxic leaks caused by storms.⁷² Language barriers deepen these inequities. About half of U.S. immigrants have limited English proficiency.⁷³ During Hurricane Beryl in 2024, Houston residents with limited English proficiency felt unprepared, as emergency resources were largely unavailable in languages other than English and Spanish.⁷⁴

People with disabilities also face greater risks during hurricanes. Many depend on specialized medications, adaptive equipment, scheduled care, or mobility assistance—needs that complicate evacuation and access to shelters during emergencies.⁷⁵ Children with disabilities are even more vulnerable, with studies showing their families are often underprepared for and unclear on emergency plans.⁷⁶ EMS systems frequently fall short: Many shelters, hospitals, and transportation services are ill-equipped for mobility aids, communication devices, or service animals, and responders may lack the training to serve individuals with disabilities effectively.⁷⁷

Climate-fueled hurricanes cause lasting damage to ecosystems, with powerful winds and storm surges eroding landscapes, flooding wetlands, and pushing seawater inland. In 2017, Hurricane Irma cut nearly 5 feet deep into Caribbean beaches and pushed shorelines back by 19 feet to more than 26 feet.⁷⁸ Surge impacts go beyond the surface: One study of Atlantic storms found that moderate surges raised groundwater by more than 3.5 feet and spiked salinity for weeks, which can harm freshwater ecosystems and urban water supplies.⁷⁹ Prolonged flooding stresses wetland plants and may convert marshes into open water.⁸⁰ In 2021, Hurricane Ida turned more than 262 square miles of marsh in Louisiana’s Barataria and Terrebonne basins into open water.⁸¹

Hurricanes decimate inland forests and native wildlife populations. In Puerto Rico in 2017, nearly three-quarters of the Luquillo Experimental Forest lost at least 3 feet of canopy to Hurricane Maria, with an average loss of more than 23 feet.⁸² After the storm, much of the forest canopy was left fragmented.⁸³At ground level, the intense rainfall caused a buildup of freshwater in the coastal wetlands of Vieques, Puerto Rico, that disrupted the ecosystem’s salinity balance and killed almost all of the island’s mangrove forests within a year.⁸⁴ Compared with prior storms that had affected Puerto Rico, Maria killed twice as many trees and broke more than three times as many trunks, with some species experiencing breakage rates that were up to 12 times higher.⁸⁵ In total, Maria is estimated to have wiped out or gravely damaged 20 million to 40 million trees.⁸⁶ That same year, in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Caribbean, the critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguana population fell by up to 27 percent.⁸⁷ Migratory birds were also hit hard, with 21 percent fewer neotropical species crossing the Gulf of Mexico during the following spring.⁸⁸

Hurricanes also increase pollution risks. When floodwaters reach chemical plants, gas stations, or energy sites, they can release toxic substances into nearby communities.⁸⁹ During Hurricane Harvey, flooding overwhelmed Texas’ Arkema chemical plant, causing a fire that forced more than 200 people to evacuate due to noxious fumes.⁹⁰ Storm surge also spreads sewage, industrial waste, and debris—polluting the air, soil, and drinking water long after landfall. Bradenton, Florida, with a population near 57,000, has a sewage system that is designed to handle 9 million gallons of sewage daily; in 2024, Hurricane Debby left it “drowning in” more than three times that amount.⁹¹

In coastal waters, hurricanes stir up sediment and wash pollutants into marine habitats, killing fish and causing ecosystem damage. Coral reefs—critical to biodiversity and valued at more than $3.4 billion to the U.S. economy—are also harmed.⁹² Storms break reef structures, degrade water quality, and bury coral in sediment. After hurricanes Maria and Irma, coral cover in the U.S. Virgin Islands fell by up to 4 percent.⁹³

As hurricanes grow stronger and more destructive, efforts to reduce harm before and after landfall are increasingly urgent. Federal, state, and local leaders have taken steps to improve how communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from storms, focusing on physical infrastructure and long-term resilience—key especially in places that have historically been ignored in recovery planning.⁹⁴

Disaster aid and recovery programs such as FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund; the U.S. Small Business Administration’s disaster assistance loans; and programs under the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency are essential lifelines when hurricanes strike.⁹⁵ States and community leaders play a key role in connecting communities to federal aid and guiding its use through local expertise.⁹⁶ In public health emergencies, states can modify or waive certain Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) requirements to maintain access to health care.⁹⁷ Ensuring access to such resources helps many working-class, low-income, rural, and underserved communities recover fully and equitably.⁹⁸ 

To minimize the impacts of future extreme weather disasters, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 dedicated more than $50 billion to building disaster-resilient infrastructure and communities.¹⁰⁰ Funds were invested in programs such as the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities initiative to support projects built to withstand more extreme weather and promote risk reduction and community resilience, among others.¹⁰¹ Future federal investments in building resilient communities and infrastructure are uncertain.

Disaster preparedness and hazard mitigation remain central to reducing future storm damage and costs. Research shows that every $1 invested in disaster resilience saves $13 in cleanup, economic losses, and recovery—including federal investments that mitigate the harms of hurricanes, floods, and other disasters.¹⁰² Updating building codes and standards is one way to build homes and buildings that better withstand extreme weather. Modernized codes reduce losses, lower insurance costs, and prevent potentially deadly structural failures.¹⁰³ Nationwide, updating weak, outdated codes could avoid $1.6 billion in future damages.¹⁰⁴

As hurricane intensity increases, communities cannot rebuild by simply replicating what was lost. Instead, federal, state, and local leaders can keep communities and families safe and lower disaster costs by rebuilding with resilience—including by elevating buildings, reinforcing utilities, and using smarter zoning and development practices.¹⁰⁵ Prioritizing resilience allows decision-makers to build better-equipped communities that will withstand future climate disasters and prosper.

The toll of more powerful, frequent, and destructive hurricanes is measured not just in dollars but also in the rising number of health impacts, fatalities, and upended homes and the long roads toward recovery that communities face. As families face the increasing risks of climate-driven storms, the need for safer, more resilient communities grows, and the cascading consequences for clean water, energy, and health care raise the stakes higher than ever. These worsening storms are not a distant threat; they are battering down the doors of homes across America during hurricane seasons prolonged by climate change.

The authors would like to thank the many individuals who shared their expertise or reviewed this report, including Margaret Cooney, Mariam Rashid, Jill Rosenthal, Alex Thornton, Lucero Marquez, Cody Hankerson, Nicole Gentile, Angelo Villagomez, Meghan Miller, Trevor Higgins, Anh Nguyen, and Bianca Serbin.