With the scale of the damage of hurricane Irene still to be assessed, there always comes the question. How much is all the repair and recovery going to cost? At present these are the most expensive hurricanes to have hit the US mainland:
| Rank | Hurricane | Year | Category | Cost (US$) |
| 1 | Katrina | 2005 | 3 | 108,000,000,000 |
| 2 | Ike | 2008 | 2 | 29,520,000,000 |
| 3 | Andrew | 1992 | 5 | 26,500,000,000 |
| 4 | Wilma | 2005 | 3 | 21,007,000,000 |
| 5 | Ivan | 2004 | 3 | 18,820,000,000 |
| 6 | Charley | 2004 | 4 | 15,113,000,000 |
| 7 | Rita | 2005 | 3 | 12,037,000,000 |
| 8 | Frances | 2004 | 2 | 9,507,000,000 |
| 9 | Allison | 2001 | TS | 9,000,000,000 |
| 10 | Jeanne | 2004 | 3 | 7,660,000,000 |
Some more useful data, this on weather-related disasters: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/01/hurricane-irene-sets-record-for-most-expensive-disaster-year.html