"Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Dennis and Stan struck off storm register"
(Source: AFP, 4/7/06)

Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Dennis and Stan have been removed from the
international list of names for storms because of the damage they
wrought last year as hurricanes in the Caribbean and United States,
the UN weather agency said.

An approved alphabetical list of 21 first names is traditionally used
each season to dub tropical storms, cyclones and hurricanes, and each
list is recycled every six years.

The World Meteorological Organisation's international hurricane
committee has "retired" 67 names since 1953 because the storms they
were tied to caused large loss of life and property.

But it is the first time so many names have been struck off after a
single season, WMO spokesman Mark Oliver said after the committee met
this week in Puerto Rico.

"It's because of the associated damage and death toll with these
particular storms," he explained.

They will be replaced with Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney in the
list that will next be used in 2011, the WMO announced.

Last year, meteorologists ran out of names and were obliged to resort
to the letters of the Greek alphabet, following a record season of 27
storms that were severe enough to merit names.

Katrina caused about 1,300 deaths last August in the southern United
States and devastated the city of New Orleans, while 2,000 people were
killed when Hurricane Stan swept through Mexico and Central America.

The removal of names also helps to avoid confusion in legal and
scientific circles, which generally have to examine the impact of
severe hurricanes for some time after they struck.

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