In 1998 Chris Landsea and I published a paper that asked how much damage past hurricanes would cause under contemporary societal conditions (i.e., adjusting for changes in population and wealth.) The table below shows these data updated to 2003. The damage estimates for Charley are not yet in, but the storm will have to result in greater than $11.2 billion in damages to break into the top 15 all time and more than $22.9 billion to break into the top 5.

Top 30 Damaging Tropical Storms and Hurricanes in the continental U.S.

Normalized to 2003 dollars by inflation, personal property increases, and coastal county population changes (1900-2003).

RANK HURRICANE YEAR CATEGORY DAMAGE (U.S))
1. SE Florida/Alabama 1926 4 $98,051,000,000
2. ANDREW (SE FL/LA) 1992 5 44,878,000,000
3. N Texas (Galveston) 1900 4 36,096,000,000
4. N Texas (Galveston) 1915 4 30,585,000,000
5. SW Florida 1944 3 22,870,000,000
6. New England 1938 3 22,549,000,000
7. SE Florida/Lake Okeechobee 1928 4 18,708,000,000
8. BETSY (SE FL/LA) 1965 3 16,863,000,000
9. DONNA (FL/Eastern U.S.) 1960 4 16,339,000,000
10. CAMILLE (MS/LA/VA) 1969 5 14,870,000,000
11. AGNES (NW FL, NE U.S.) 1972 1 14,515,000,000
12. DIANE (NE U.S.) 1955 1 13,875,000,000
13. HUGO (SC) 1989 4 12,718,000,000
14. CAROL (NE U.S.) 1954 3 12,291,000,000
15. SE Florida/Louisiana/Alabama 1947 4 11,266,000,000
16. CARLA (N & Central TX) 1961 4 9,587,000,000
17. HAZEL (SC/NC) 1954 4 9,545,000,000
18. NE U.S. 1944 3 8,763,000,000
19. SE Florida 1945 3 8,561,000,000
20. FREDERIC (AL/MS) 1979 3 8,534,000,000
21. SE Florida 1949 3 7,918,000,000
22. S Texas 1919 4 7,253,000,000
23. ALICIA (N TX) 1983 3 5,501,000,000
24. ALLISON (N TX) 2001 TS 5,408,000,000
25. FLOYD (NC) 1999 2 5,264,000,000
26. CELIA (S TX) 1970 3 4,526,000,000
27. DORA (NE FL) 1964 2 4,215,000,000
28. FRAN (NC) 1996 3 4,201,000,000
29. OPAL (NW FL/AL) 1995 3 4,068,000,000
30. ISABEL (NC) 2003 2 3,370,000,000