Ann wrote:
.....
Not all hurricanes kill many and the cost doesn't necessarily reflect the
severity. The cost depends on the value of the buildings it takes out.

In fact, cost is a very poor indicator of actual severity. The penchant
of news services in reporting dollar damage estimates is peculiar imo.
Simply the inflation factor between now and the Galveston event, for
example, would increase it's "severity" by orders of magnitued...