ATLANTA — Two major storms that devastated the East Coast and Gulf during the previous hurricane season have had their names removed from the rotation used to name future storms.
"Florence and Michael won't have another chance to wreak havoc in the Atlantic basin," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a press release on Wednesday.
Both storms caused several deaths and extensive damage that spanned portions of Florida all the way up to Virginia in 2018.
NOAA explained in their announcement that storm names are retired "if they were so deadly or destructive that the future use of the name would be insensitive."
In their own post, NOAA described Hurricane Florence as "one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to ever hit the Carolinas," when it made landfall near Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina on Sept. 14 and began its move inland. It caused 51 deaths and major flooding across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
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A month later, on Oct. 10, Hurricane Michael became the third most intense hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous U.S. based on central pressure and the fourth based on wind speed. It hit the Florida coast with sustained winds of 155 mph. It's now on record as being the most intense hurricane on record to hit the Florida panhandle. It's blamed for 45 deaths and devastation that stretched into Georgia and beyond into the Carolinas and Virginia - both still picking up the pieces from Florence.
Had it not been removed, Michael and Florence would have been added back to the mix in six years. In their place will be Milton and Francine during the 2024 storm season.
NOAA reports that the two names bring the number of retired storm names to 88 since 1953 when they first started officially naming storms.