‘Irene’ Removed From Hurricane Name List
The death and damage caused by Hurricane Irene means the name is being withdrawn from a rotating list of storm titles, the U.N. weather agency said on Tuesday.
"Irene" will be replaced by "Irma" after meteorologists decided any future use of the name could cause upset.
Irene hit the Atlantic in August last year and was responsible for 49 deaths, most of them in the United States, and billions of dollars of damage.
The decision was made by the World Meteorological Organization's hurricane committee at their annual meeting in Florida.
"Names are withdrawn if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name would be insensitive," said the WMO in a statement.
Previous names to have been removed from the Atlantic tropical storm list include "Katrina" after the U.S. hurricane which devastated the south in 2005 and "Mitch" which hit Honduras in 1998.
Source: Agence France Presse
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