No More Gustav, Ike or Paloma

HAVANA, Cuba, May 5 (acn) The names Gustav, Ike and Paloma (hurricanes that hit Cuba in 2008) will never again identify tropical storms in the North Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea.

The decision is part of an agreement reached during the last meeting of the 4th Region Committee on Hurricanes of the World Meteorology Organization held in the Bahamas, Granma newspaper reports.

Dr. José Rubiera, head of the Cuban Meteorology Institute’s Forecast Center and vice-president of the aforementioned Committee, explained that the proposal to remove the names Gustav and Ike from the list was made by Cuba, and was based on the substantial damage caused by these
two hurricanes to the national economy.

Following Cuba’s suggestion, they were replaced by Gonzalo and Isaías.

Tropical storms are given names when they reach the tropical storm stage (maximum continuous winds of 63 kilometers per hour or above).

For this purpose, in the geographical area where Cuba is located, there’s a list of names previously made in English, French and Spanish, which are repeated every six years and alternately male and female names.

Therefore, Gonzalo and Isaías will be used for the first time during the 2014 hurricane season.

The request of removing Paloma (replaced by Paulette) was made by the delegation from the Caiman Islands, since when it hit these islands it did so as a Category 4 hurricane, according to the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Among names previously removed from the list we find the unfortunately well-known Flora, Camille, Andrew, Mitch and Katrina.


(Retiran nombres de huracanes Gustav, Ike y Paloma)