WASHINGTON — Hurricanes Helene, Milton and Beryl were so nasty last year that their names are being retired.
The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday officially replaced the names of the trio of 2024 storms that killed more than 300 people and caused more than $119 billion in damage. Brianna, Holly and Miguel take their place in the rotating six-year list of names for Atlantic storms set in advance by a committee of international meteorologists. Retiring the names of killer storms is a regular practice and the list of retired names is approaching 100.
Helene was by far the deadliest and most expensive of the trio with its flooding claiming 249 lives, the most in the United States since 2005’s Katrina. It also was the seventh most expensive storm in American history, with damages reaching $78.7 billion, according to the National Hurricane Center. While it came out of the Gulf and hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4, most of the deaths and damage were inland in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Milton came on the heels of Helene, bringing high winds, flooding and tornadoes to cause $34.3 billion in damage, almost all of it in Florida. Beryl, which in June because the earliest Category 5 storm to form in a season, killed 68 people in the United States, Grenada, Venezuela, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
In the Pacific region, the name Jack is replacing John, a Category 3 storm that killed 29 people in Mexico.
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
