How long has it been since a hurricane or a major hurricane hit a given community in the United States?
Contributed by Chris Landsea This table summarizes the occurrence of the last hurricane and major hurricane to directly hit the most populated coastal communities from Brownsville, Texas to Eastport, Maine. In addition, if a hurricane indirectly affected a community after the last direct hit, it is listed in the last column of the table. To obtain histories of hurricane strikes by coastal counties, the reader is referred to the NOAA Coastal Services Center web site. There are many illustrative examples of the uncertainty of when a hurricane might strike a given locality. After nearly 70 years without a direct hit, Pensacola, Florida was hit directly by Hurricane Erin in 1995 and major Hurricane Ivan in 2004 within 10 years. Miami, which expects a major hurricane every nine years, on average, has been struck only once since 1950 (in 1992). Tampa has not experienced a major hurricane for 84 years. Many locations along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts have not experienced a major hurricane du
