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No more Florence, no more Michael; World Meterological Organization retires hurricane names
North Carolina will never see another Hurricane Florence, another Hurricane Michael.
The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday agreed to remove those names from the six-year cycle. In 2024, when the list of names would have been the same as those from 2018, the F storm will be Francine and the M storm Milton.
The WMO will retire a name after a storm is particularly deadly or destructive so that reuse won’t trigger those who suffered the first time.
Including these two, 88 names have been retired from the Atlantic basin list since 1953, when storms began to be named. The 2005 hurricane season has the most retired names – five – for one season.
Hurricane Florence is blamed for at least 51 deaths; Hurricane Michael for 43.
Claims from Florence
Select a county below to see losses from Hurricane Florence based on claims for residential property tracked by the N.C. Department of Insurance as of November 2018.
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In Wake County, residents filed 4,234 claims for a total of $21,979,855 in losses. That’s about $5,191 per claim, or $20.89 per person based on the population of the county.
Six months later, much of eastern North Carolina is still drying out, cleaning up and beginning to rebuild.