It is remarkable how much more dangerous hurricanes used to be in the age before timely warnings and measures to protect against flood and wind. Some catastrophic hurricanes include:

• 1900, 8000 died when Galveston, TX, was submerged beneath a storm surge.
• 1928, when a storm surge on Lake Okeechobee (FL) boosted the death toll to 2500.
• 1935, when the Labor Day storm killed over 400 in the upper Florida Keys, including many in a veterans work camp that was constructing the highway to Key West.

All numbers are from a National Hurricane Center report for the US. Large death tolls from other hurricanes continue to plague the region outside of the continental US.