Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest and most costly hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the deadliest and costliest storms of the 20th century. The hurricane killed as many as 1,000 people in Haiti before striking the United States, where it killed 95 people, near the border between North and South Carolina, as a Category 4 hurricane. Hazel then struck Canada as what today is referred to as a tropical storm, raising the death...
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Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest and most costly hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the deadliest and costliest storms of the 20th century. The hurricane killed as many as 1,000 people in Haiti before striking the United States, where it killed 95 people, near the border between North and South Carolina, as a Category 4 hurricane. Hazel then struck Canada as what today is referred to as a tropical storm, raising the death toll by 81 more people. Most of the deaths—concentrated around Toronto—were caused by the heavy rainfall from the now extratropical storm. As a result of its damaging effects and high death toll, its name was retired and will never again be used for a hurricane in the North Atlantic basin.
In Haiti, Hazel destroyed 40% of the coffee trees and 50% of the cacao ones, affecting the economy for several years to come. In the Carolinas, the majority of waterfront dwellings near the point the hurricane made landfall were destroyed; on its way...
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