NEW YORK, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season comes to a close on Saturday, bringing to an end a season that saw 11 hurricanes compared to the average seven, and death and destruction hundreds of miles from where storms came ashore on the U.S. Gulf Coast, The Associated Press reported Friday.
Meteorologists called it a "crazy busy" season, due in part to unusually warm ocean temperatures. Eight hurricanes made landfall, in the United States, Bermuda, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Grenada.
In September, Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage across the southeastern U.S. and was the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005. More than 200 people died.
North Carolina estimates the storm caused at least 48.8 billion U.S. dollars in direct or indirect damage with houses, drinking water systems and farms and forests destroyed. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia also sustained extensive damage.
"In October, Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified and the storm's maximum wind speeds hit a screaming 180 mph, making it one of the strongest hurricanes by wind speed ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico. The only one stronger by that measure was Hurricane Rita in 2005," said the report.
The areas where Helene and Milton struck saw as much as three times their usual rainfall for September and October, the heart of the Atlantic hurricane season. For Asheville, Tampa and Orlando, the two-month period was the wettest on record, it added.
