The Federal Emergency Management Agency this week updated how much money it spent helping people and communities recover from back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.
FEMA says it has distributed more than $11 billion, some of it to help survivors and affected communities.
The agency reported most of the money – nearly $8 billion - went to more than 65,000 families who had claims with the National Flood Insurance Program.
Pinning down a hard dollar figure for a natural disaster is tricky. Different estimates use different methodologies. Some focus strictly on the cost of fixing what was destroyed. Others capture the broader economic toll: shuttered businesses, tourists who never showed up, all the commerce that vanished when the storms hit.
And the assessments keep evolving, especially when you're dealing with back-to-back hurricanes that devastated the same region in completely different ways just three weeks apart.
FEMA admitted the $11 billion is a fraction of the total cost of both storms. The agency spent $12.5 billion in 2024 alone on 2017's Hurricane Maria.
Helene and Milton occurred when President Joe Biden was still in office. However, in June of 2025 and eight months after the hurricanes, President Donald J. Trump said FEMA will "immediately give out less money" to states recovering from disasters.
In the past, FEMA spending on disasters has continued for many years after the initial event. The Straight Arrow News, an independent digital news outlet, reported that in 2024, FEMA spent:
- $12.5 billion on 2017's Hurricane Maria
- $375 million on 2012's Hurricane Sandy
- $53 million on 2005's hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma
FEMA spent $1.5 billion less on Helene and Milton combined than it did in 2024 on 2017's Hurricane Maria.
Depending on the source, the devasatation from hurricanes Helene and Milton, combined, totals between $64 billion to more than $110 billion.
“Estimating losses in these events is challenging and it is important to consider all associated complexities and uncertainties," Mohsen Rahnama, Moody’s chief risk modelling officer, said in Global Reinsurance magazine in the days following Milton. “Especially in the overlapping regions affected by both hurricanes.
“The overlap in high winds across the two storms makes it challenging to assess damage,” he told the magazine. “Structures damaged by Helene are unlikely to have been repaired before Milton, and may be prone to additional damage from Hurricane Milton.”
Tropical Storm Helene formed September 24 in the Caribbean, rapidly intensified into a hurricane, and made landfall near Perry on September 26 as a Category 4 with 140 mph winds, which is the strongest hurricane to hit the Big Bend on record.
Helene alone killed more than 250 people from Florida to the Carolinas, ranking as the deadliest mainland hurricane since Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, killed 1,833 people, and caused $161 billion in damage in inflation-adjusted dollars — a record that still stands. While multiple agencies still agree Katrina killed 1,833, the National Weather Service later reduced its official number dead to 1,392.
According to CoreLogic, total property damage from Helene alone is between $30 billion and $47.5 billion.
Other meteorological analyses place Helene’s economic losses much higher at $79 billion or more.
Higher estimates from AccuWeather and some other private forecasters have put Helene’s broader economic impact well above $250 billion.
Hurricane Milton formed October 5 in the Gulf, reached Category 5 status two days later with sustained 180 mph winds, then weakened to a category 3 before landfall at Siesta Key on October 9. The storm killed about 45 people.
The National Centers for Environmental Information put Hurricane Milton damages at about $34.3 billion.
CoreLogic and some other firms that estimate natural disaster damage estimate Milton was a storm that brought damages between $21 billion and $34 billion.
Moody’s Analytics have suggested even higher damage total for Milton at $50 billion.
The totals for either Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Milton are still considered preliminary and nothing has been universally accepted as damages continue to be tallied.
Known, however, is the human toll, and it’s more brutal than any dollar amount.
Combined, around 300 people perished as a result of Helene and Milton in six states, mostly Florida and North Carolina.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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