MIAMI (WFLA) — There will never be another Hurricane Ida again after meteorologists decided this week to retire the name of the storm that caused widespread damage along the Gulf Coast last year.
The World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee officially retired the name Ida on Wednesday.
Ida was a destructive hurricane that hit the Gulf Coast of Louisiana in August 2021.
“Ida was the most devastating storm of the season. It peaked as a Category 4 hurricane… that caused severe to catastrophic damage in southeastern Louisiana,” the WMO said. “Ida later became an extratropical low that caused heavy rain and deadly flooding in the northeastern United States.”
According to the WMO, there were 55 direct fatalities tied to Ida and 32 indirect fatalities. NOAA estimated the storm caused $75 billion worth of damage in the United States.
The list of Atlantic hurricane names repeats every six years, unless a storm name is retired.
“The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity,” the National Hurricane Center explains on its website.
Moving forward, the name Ida will be replaced with Imani on future storm lists, the WMO’s Hurricane Committee says. The earliest the name Imani can be used is 2027.
