Radar image of Hurricane Matthew on Thursday, October 6
MIAMI – The names of two major hurricanes that wreaked havoc through the Caribbean in 2016 are being retired, the World Meteorological Organization announced Monday.
‘Matthew’ and ‘Otto’ are the 81st and 82nd names to be removed from the Atlantic list.
Matthew became a Category 5 storm on September 30 over the central Caribbean Sea. It made landfall along the coast of southwestern Haiti, eastern Cuba, western Grand Bahama Island and central South Carolina. The storm was directly responsible for 585 deaths, 500 of which were in Haiti. It was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Stan in 2005.
Otto was a late-season storm that started on November 30. It made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in southern Nicaragua. It crossed from the Atlantic Ocean into the eastern Pacific Ocean. It caused 18 fatalities in Central America.
The World Meteorological Organization will replace ‘Matthew’ with ‘Martin,’ and ‘Otto’ with ‘Owen’ when the 2016 lists are used again in 2022.
