1965-1969

1965

Before Katrina, Betsy was the storm of record for New Orleans. Betsy is known for several things: its irregular track, first of all. It struck the Bahamas and south Florida (Miami was grazed by it). It was also the first hurricane to cause over a billion dollars in damage (not adjusted for inflation). The water it carried breached the levees. So, as a result, new levees were constructed - ones designed to resist storms like Betsy (ie, fast moving storms). But Katrina was much bigger and much slower than Betsy was.

1966

Two storms of note: Faith and Inez. Faith is notable mostly for its records: the storm with the longest track, the largest hurricane, the most northerly hurricane. (All these records are just for the Atlantic.) Inez is partly notable for its irregular track, but mostly notable for hitting many land areas and doing a fair amount of damage. Its worst impacts were in Haiti, where it killed an unspecified number of people, since I'm not sure when a missing person can safely be declared dead.

1967

When Alex struck a month ago, Houston's TV stations sent reporters down to the Rio Grande, where the river that can't even flow into the sea usually looked like an actual river. Seems Alex caused a spot of rain down there. Seriously, the flooding was compared to Beulah, the strongest hurricane of 1967. There was a storm surge of 20 feet at South Padre Island. 100 mph gusts were recorded at McAllen and Edinburg, and 100+ sustained at Brownsville. The storm caused 115 tornadoes, a record not broken until 2004.

1968

No Betsys or Beulahs this year. Abby was a rare June hurricane. Gladys was the costliest storm, affecting the southeast coast.

1969

This was an active season, with 18 storms forming, but only one is remembered. Before Katrina, there was Camille - one of only three Cat-5s to hit the US. (the other two: 1935 Keys hurricane, Andrew) Anyway, the Cat-5 speaks for itself. It consumed the coast. Supposedly there was a hurricane party where only one survived - didn't happen. Less than 1000 died. Notably, unlike Katrina, Camille did not affect New Orleans - it was a rather small storm. The smallness also meant that its (very large - 24 feet) storm surge was smaller than Katrina's. The storm caused flash flooding as it passed over the Appalachian Mountains in VA and WV. Camille also inspired the creation of the Saffir Simpson hurricane wind scale.

Martha is semi-notable: it made landfall in Panama (only known storm to do so) and was the farthest south landfalling storm we know of.