#6 1998’s Southeast U.S. Floods
Even if it is the first entry on our list, it is by no means one of the least severe floods our country has ever had. If anything, it ranks up as being one of the most costly when it comes to damage caused by the overflowing water ($2.49 billion), and the fact that it continued to happen all over the region caused a lot of problems. Despite this, the casualties are rather low for such a big event (132 people), but even so, the loss of one life is a tragedy.
Piggybacking on the disaster brought about by the El Nino hurricane a year before, these floods are said to be caused by the unstable weather that started after it in the winter of 1997 and continued well into spring 1998.
A lot of southeastern states had to face record-breaking and above-average amounts of rainfall, which caused extensive flooding in all regions (especially in Florida). Tampa got 36 inches of rain that winter, and everyone still remembers these floods as one event, even if they happened over a longer period of time.
