Which caused more damage and casualties, Hurricane Andrew or Tropical Storm Jerry?
Tropical Storm Jerry (1995) Tropical Storm Jerry was a tropical storm that caused severe flooding throughout the southeast United States in August of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season. Jerry, the tenth tropical storm of the season, formed from a tropical wave that moved off the African coast in early August, which organized into a tropical depression and tropical storm between the Bahamas and Florida later in the month, before striking Florida in the latter part of the month. Its remnant circulation persisted until five days after landfall. The rainfall it produced, amounting to over 12 in in several locations across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, was responsible for $40 million (2005 USD) in damage and 6 deaths. At the time, Jerry was the earliest tenth storm to form in a season on record, until Jose in the 2005 season overtook it. Tropical Storm Jerry was also the first tropical cyclone to make landfall in South Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Hurricane Rafael Hurricane Rafael produced minor damage in the northeastern Caribbean Sea in mid-October 2012. The seventeenth named storm and ninth hurricane of the annual hurricane season, Rafael originated from a tropical wave roughly 230 mi (370 km) south-southeast of Saint Croix on October 12; because the system already contained tropical storm-force winds, it skipped tropical depression status. Though initially disorganized due to moderate wind shear, a subsequent decrease allowed for shower and thunderstorm activity to develop in earnest by October 14. While moving north-northwestward the following morning, Rafael intensified into a Category 1 hurricane. A cold front off the East Coast of the United States caused the system to turn northward and eventually northeastward by October 16, at which time Rafael attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 km/h). As the cyclone entered a more stable atmosphere and tracked across increasingly cooler sea surface temperatures, it began extratropical transition, a process the system completed by the following afternoon.