Hurricane Dennis had come and (as a hurricane) gone. Although there were some fatalities related to the storm, it could have been much worse.

How much worse? Consider the hurricane season of 1780:

Eight different storms battered the West Indies and American coasts, including four killer storms in October. During that month, hurricanes killed more people, an estimated 27,000, than died in battle during the entire six-year war [the American Revolution, which was going on at that time].

The first hurricane struck western Jamaica on October 3rd and completely destroyed the settlement of Savanna-La-Mer. It raced across Cuba and the Bahamas before entering the shipping lanes between Cape Hatteras and Bermuda. In addition to an estimated eleven hundred deaths, two British fleets were hit. Later that week, a second storm raked Cuba, killing 2000.

Next was the greatest killer hurricane of all time: the Great Hurricane of 1780. 22,000 may have died between October 10th and 16th on the seas, and across the West Indies islands of Barbados, Martinique and St. Eustatius. Both British and French naval fleets, on maneuvers in the Antilles, sustained heavy casualties, including the 74-gun HMS Cornwall and over 100 British merchant ships.

The final hurricane of the quartet, hit the 64-ship Spanish fleet of under Admiral Solano off the western tip of Cuba as he was preparing to attack Pensacola. It's estimated that 2000 died in this storm.

Modern communications, advances in scientific forecasting and better building methods have reduced the damage and deaths from modern hurricanes, but one must not be complacent -- Hurricane Mitch, in 1998, caused over 9,000 deaths in Central America.