Hurricane Samuel was a long-lived, monstrous hurricane that, at its peak, packed winds of up to 450 mph (720 km/h) and a pressure of 550 millibars. The storm was, besides Typhoon Noelani in Japan, the strongest storm on record. It also was second largest, with a diameter exceeding 2,500 miles (4,000 km) when it was in the Gulf of Mexico, and about 1,800 miles wide when it hit New York City. The storm left millions dead all along the East Coast of the US, Florida, and the Caribbean.