JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Hurricane Irma has made a dubious list as NOAA and the National Hurricane Center announced it was the fifth-costliest hurricane of all time.
The feds said Irma caused $50 billion in damages.
Last year's other two major hurricanes also made the list. Hurricane Maria with $90 billion in damages, was the third costliest in history. Hurricane Harvey, which caused $125,000 billion in damages, came in second only to Hurricane Katrina, which costs more than $160 billion after adjusting for inflation.
Hurricane Sandy was in fourth place, causing an estimated $70.2 billion in damages.
The devastating 2017 hurricane season came after an 11-year drought with no major hurricane landfalls in the United States.
"Once a streak breaks, a drought in this case, historically there is a makeup period where we could easily see an over abundance of major hurricanes hitting the United States," News4Jax chief meteorologist John Gaughan said.
NOAA said the three major hurricanes were among 16 separate disaster events in 2017 that caused damages that exceeded $300 billion, a new U.S. record. Of that, the three major hurricanes resulted in $265 billion in damages.
The previous annual record was 2015, which included hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.