Hurricane Georges

Hurricane Georges () was a powerful and long-lived tropical cyclone which caused severe destruction as it traversed the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in September 1998, making seven landfalls along its path. Georges was the seventh tropical storm, fourth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season. It became one of the most destructive storms of the season, the costliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and remained the costliest until Hurricane Charley in 2004, and the deadliest since Hurricane Gordon in 1994. Georges killed 615 people, mainly on the island of Hispaniola, caused extensive damage resulting in just under $10 billion (US dollars in 1998) in damages and leaving nearly 500,000 people homeless in St. Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba. The hurricane made landfall in at least six countries (Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the United States), more than any other hurricane since Hurricane Inez of the 1966 season. Throughout its path of destruction, it caused extreme flooding and mudslides, as well as heavy crop damage. Thousands were left homeless as a result of the storm in the Lesser Antilles, and damage in those islands totaled about US$880 million. In the Greater Antilles, hundreds of deaths were confirmed, along with over $2.4 billion in damages. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless, due to catastrophic flooding, torrential rainfall, and high storm surge. Flooding was exacerbated heavily by coastal defenses being broken from high waves. Crops were heavily damaged, and thousands of houses were destroyed due to mudslides. Damage from Georges was extensive in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as well. In Puerto Rico, the storm was the first hurricane to pass over the island since the 1932 San Ciprián hurricane. Storm surges 10...