Extremely active hurricane season ends in the Atlantic

World Today

Atlantic hurricane season has finally wrapped up after a catastrophic series of storms. Ten hurricanes swept through the Atlantic this year, leaving a trail of destruction in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

CGTN’s Nitza Soledad Perez reports from Miami.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially comes to a close Thursday. Though it felt at times like the worst season ever, it turns out to be the seventh most active season in history. But September ranked as the worst month ever in total storm intensity.

We had 17 named storms this year. Ten became hurricanes, with six of those major hurricanes, category three and higher. Three of these monster storms hit the U.S. 

In August, Hurricane Harvey was the most powerful storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years, killing more than 75 people and paralyzing Houston, the fourth most-populous U.S. city with catastrophic flooding.

The next month brought Hurricane Irma. The Category 5 storm hit the Caribbean destroying much of Saint Martin, the island shared by both French and Dutch powers. The island of Barbuda was devastated as well, with 90 percent of its infrastructure wiped out. Irma continued its path to Cuba as the strongest system to hit that island in 80 years, damaging crops and collapsing the power grid. Then it crossed to South Florida. Many lost their homes in the Florida keys and the damage to Florida crops was significant.

On September 20th, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, killing dozens, destroying the electrical grid and halting all economic activity in the U.S. territory. More than two months later, the island is still struggling to recover. It has been a rocky and uncertain process for those living there.

The U.S. National Weather Service had predicted that 2017 would be an above normal season, and it was right. It was also the costliest ever for the United Sates, with damages topping $200 billion.