Christine B. Davis, who lived her entire life close to the Gulf of Mexico, was born just weeks before the 1914 hurricane season began. Throughout her 110 years in Texas and Louisiana, she encountered numerous hurricanes and tropical storms.

Davis often reminisced about Hurricane Carla, which was a Category 4 storm that struck in 1961. However, the 2024 hurricane season, which marked her 111^th year, became overwhelming.

The last surviving member of her family, Davis succumbed to environmental heat exposure after Hurricane Beryl hit Matagorda County in June.

She was with a granddaughter in Cleveland, Texas, where they had a generator. But after enduring a week without power, “it was too much for her body,” Odom stated. “She just couldn’t handle it.”

As a great-great-great grandmother, Davis was one of at least 335 individuals who lost their lives during the five hurricanes that impacted the U.S. this year, as per preliminary estimates from local and state officials analyzed by YSL News. The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on November 30.

This year’s fatalities make 2024 the deadliest hurricane season since 2005, according to Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center.

Among at least three dozen Texans who died due to Hurricane Beryl, the storm caused sustained winds of 80 mph, leading to widespread power outages.

Ranking as the deadliest storm affecting the continental U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005—which resulted in over 1,500 deaths—Hurricane Helene alone accounted for at least 241 fatalities.

Helene significantly contributed to making this year one of the deadliest since satellite tracking of hurricanes began in the 1950s. According to Brennan, the season has proven to be particularly lethal due to flooding and high winds.

Hurricanes: More than just coastal issues

According to Andrea Schumacher, a scientist focused on weather risks at the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, this season has seen death tolls not witnessed in decades, except for the year 2005.

Despite advancements in forecasting and warnings, there remains a “messaging quandary,” Schumacher pointed out. People often associate hurricanes primarily with shorelines.

The extensive damages caused by Helene illustrated the wide-reaching effects a single hurricane can have.

At one point, authorities issued hurricane and tropical storm alerts affecting nearly three whole states and parts of Western North Carolina, according to Brennan.

“Hurricanes do not solely affect coastal regions,” he emphasized. “Maps indicating where fatalities occurred during Helene reveal that most of them took place hundreds of miles away from the landfall point.”

Nearly 40% of the 241 recorded deaths from Hurricane Helene occurred in North Carolina, while only 15% were in Florida, the site of Helene’s landfall.

Fatalities from hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. mainland in 2024

Death counts have been reported by local officials, state officials, the National Weather Service, and the hurricane center.

• Beryl – At least 40 fatalities reported after it struck Matagorda County, Texas, on July 8.
• Debby – 9 fatalities in Florida and South Carolina following its August 5 landfall in Taylor County, Florida.
• Francine – No deaths reported after it made landfall southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, on September 11.
• Helene – At least 241 fatalities across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia following its September 26 landfall in Taylor County, Florida.
• Milton – 44 deaths were recorded across Florida after it landed near Siesta Key on October 9.

While Alberto didn’t hit the U.S. directly, a 17-year-old lost their life due to a rip current caused by it off Galveston, Texas, as reported by the hurricane center.

Similar to Davis, a significant number of the hurricane fatalities were older individuals. North Carolina officials noted the average age of the Helene victims was 58, while those who perished after Beryl in Texas averaged 88 years old.

Hurricane Helene Claims Over 240 Lives

Brennan noted that Helene was the most lethal tropical storm in terms of wind-related fatalities since at least 1963.

“The magnitude of the event and the expanse of the hurricane’s wind area were significant,” with wind gusts reaching up to 100 mph in the higher regions of North Carolina, he explained. Preliminary reports indicate that about 60 to 65 deaths were caused by the hurricane’s winds.

Tragically, this includes the deaths of one-month-old twins, Khyzier and Khazmir Williams, who, along with their mother, Kobe Williams, were killed when a tree collapsed onto their mobile home in Georgia, as Helene’s fierce winds pushed inland after making landfall south of Tallahassee, Florida, on September 26.

The hurricane’s strong winds knocked down trees and power lines and caused extensive roof damage across Georgia and into South Carolina, leading to power outages affecting up to 100% of utility customers in many counties. Brennan mentioned that nearly all of the fatalities caused by the winds stemmed from falling trees.

In some areas across about 200 miles of the Appalachians, rainfall reached between 10 to 30 inches, resulting in devastating flooding in the western mountains of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Rescue teams searched through creeks, lakes, and debris from mudslides for weeks in an attempt to find missing individuals. At least four victims were found around Echo Lake in Buncombe County, home to Asheville, North Carolina.

The Impact of Climate Change on Hurricane Dangers

Prior to the hurricane season, Brennan expressed growing concern about the need to remind everyone that water-related hazards are the most lethal dangers posed by hurricanes, even far from their strongest winds. Over the last decade, nearly 60% of hurricane victim fatalities have been due to freshwater flooding.

The unprecedented amounts of rain during Helene highlighted this truth, as over 34 people drowned in the floods in North Carolina, and 23 lost their lives in landslides, according to state officials.

The toll from flooding rains during Helene represents the highest number of fatalities since Hurricane Agnes in 1972, according to Brennan.

Multiple research teams, including scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have linked some of Helene’s severe rainfall to climate change’s warming effects. Experts have indicated that rising ocean temperatures, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, energize hurricanes, while increased atmospheric warmth allows storms to retain more moisture.

This year, the Gulf of Mexico recorded unprecedented heat levels.

“We’ve been discussing this for many years now, warning that things would worsen due to climate change,” said Schumacher.

The terrain of the Appalachian Mountains exemplifies the dire combination of steep landscapes and heavy rainfall, she added.

In numerous counties within the Appalachians, the risk of landslides and flooding is extremely high due to their geographical vulnerabilities, noted Schumacher.

“This is likely why Helene caused so many deaths inland,” she explained. “When the rain starts falling and mountainsides begin to crumble, there’s little one can do at that point to protect themselves.”

Brennan mentioned that federal authorities are launching new flood inundation maps designed to showcase areas at risk of flooding from rainfall. In Eastern Tennessee, these maps were utilized to evacuate people from dangerous zones, he stated.

Hurricane-Related Fatalities

At least ten fatalities have been linked to tornadoes, with at least six of those deaths associated with Hurricane Milton. According to Brennan, this marks the highest number of tornado-related deaths in a single hurricane season since 2004.

Alongside the death of Davis, authorities in Harris County, Texas, reported six additional deaths related to heat exposure in the midst of power outages.

Following Hurricane Helene’s landfall in Florida, the Sheriff’s office indicated that at least 11 individuals were discovered in homes inundated by storm surge in Pinellas County, where the Gulf of Mexico’s water levels surged by up to seven feet. The average age of these victims was over 70 years.

Fortunately, no deaths were documented in Taylor County, where Hurricanes Debby and Helene made landfall, as noted by Brennan. Preliminary estimates suggest that the surge could have exceeded 20 feet along parts of Taylor County’s coast due to Helene.

Brennan highlighted that decades of diligent work and investment from state, federal, and local governments to create risk assessments, evacuation plans, and to issue specific storm surge watches and warnings have significantly contributed to a decrease in storm surge fatalities.

Researchers, including meteorologists, emergency managers, and social scientists, are continuously exploring ways to lower the total number of deaths associated with storms. This includes tackling the complexities of how, when, and where individuals are instructed to evacuate, according to Schumacher.

Understanding the reasons behind people’s decisions to evacuate or not remains a complicated issue, she noted. “Extensive research is currently ongoing.”

Decisions made by individuals are not solely based on weather forecasts and alerts, she explained. “They’re considering a wide range of other factors.”