15. The Sea Islands Hurricane of 1893
The Sea Islands Hurricane hit the coast of Georgia in late August, near Savannah, made a sharp right turn, and moved up the east coast of the United States and eastern Canada before returning to the Atlantic, where it finally dissipated. Long estimated to have made landfall as a category 3 storm, modern analyses of the known data collected during the storm, mostly of the low barometric pressures associated with it, have caused the storm to become considered to have been at least a category 4 hurricane. The Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia were the first to feel the brunt of the storm, and they were overwhelmed by the storm surge.
At least 1,000, and estimates of up to 2,000, people were killed in the storm, most of them on the Sea Islands and most of them by drowning in the storm surge. Many more died in the aftermath as rescue efforts were hampered by succeeding storms. Although the Sea Islands were hit on August 27, relief from the Red Cross did not arrive in the region until early October, more than 1 month later. When relief did arrive, it remained for an intensive rebuilding effort of the homes which were swept away on the islands, which lasted for nearly a year. As the storm swept north it added to the damage inflicted by another hurricane which had struck New York and Long Island on August 24.