Hurricane Georges hit Louisiana in 1998, doing $30.1 million in damage and causing three deaths. Attaining a peak intensity of 155 mph (250 km/h) on September 20, the storm tracked through the Greater Antilles and later entered the Gulf of Mexico. Half a million residents in Louisiana evacuated from low-lying areas before the Category 2 storm made landfall on the 28th in Mississippi. Many homes outside the levee system were flooded by the storm surge, and 85 fishing camps on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain were destroyed. An estimated 160,000 residences were left without power; beaches were severely eroded by the slow-moving storm. Precipitation in Louisiana peaked at 2.98 inches (75.69 mm) in Bogalusa, and wind gusts reached 82 mph (132 km/h). In the wake of the hurricane, the Federal Emergency Management Agency opened 67 shelters across the state, and covered insurance claims totalling $14,150,532, including from Puerto Rico and Mississippi. The Clinton administration appropriated $56 million in disaster relief to regions in Louisiana for recovery from Tropical Storm Frances and Hurricane Georges. (Full article...)