Say goodbye to Ida: Name of deadly hurricane retired

Ida will join the ranks of retired storm names after the Category 4 hurricane claimed dozens of lives and wrought widespread destruction across the nation, even when weakening into a tropical rainstorm, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Hurricane Committee ruled Wednesday.

The panel maintains the rotating lists of names that are used in each tropical cyclone basin, only altering the list to remove a name in the case of a particularly deadly or costly storm. Hurricane Ida met the criteria two-fold.

With a catastrophic path that carved hundreds of miles from Louisiana through New Jersey, 91 deaths were attributed to Hurricane Ida in late August 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Just this month, the hurricane was ranked the fifth-costliest storm on record at $76.5 billion, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the National Hurricane Center. AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers had estimated in late August, the total damage and economic loss from the hurricane would fall between $70 billion and $80 billion. After the storm caused catastrophic damage in the Northeast, he revised his estimate to $95 billion.

Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans 16 years earlier to the day, remains the costliest storm on record at $180 billion, with the 2022 CPI-adjusted cost. It's followed by Hurricane Harvey ($143.8 billion in 2017), Hurricane Maria ($103.5 billion in 2017) and Hurricane Sandy ($80 billion in 2012). The costliest hurricane in the Atlantic Basin that hasn't had its name retired was Hurricane Sally in 2020 at $7.9 billion, which ranks 32nd on the list.

AccuWeather's RealVue™ Satellite image shows Hurricane Ida's eye as it was nearing landfall late in the morning on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021.

Ida is the 94th retired storm name and the 12th "I" name to be retired since 1954, further cementing it as the most-retired letter. Only "C"- and "F"-named storms come close to challenging the number of retired I-named storms, both tied at nine, according to data compiled by Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

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The soon-to-be infamous name was first introduced to the list in 2009 when it replaced Isabel, and, looking ahead, the name Imani will replace Ida in 2027, if used.

Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on Aug. 29, 2021, as a Category 4 storm some 40 miles west of where Hurricane Katrina made its first landfall. While the levee systems held up, communities outside of the levee system were hit by the full force of the hurricane's storm surge and the storm itself was poised to dump over 10 inches of rain in portions of Louisiana and Mississippi within the first 48 hours of landfall.

Audrey Trufant Salvant stands near a casket that floated in floodwaters from a nearby cemetery to her home in Ironton, La., Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. A month after Hurricane Ida roared ashore with 150-mph (241-kph) winds, communities all along the state's southeastern coast - Ironton, Grand Isle, Houma, Lafitte and Barataria - were still suffering from the devastating effects of the Category 4 storm. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Over 1 million customers across Louisiana found themselves without electricity the day following landfall, and while power was almost entirely restored by Sept. 10, storm-caused outages in less-populated areas persisted for over a month, according to the radio station WWNO.

To add to the misery, a heat advisory was issued for parts of Louisiana and Mississippi in the days following the storm, with RealFeel® Temperatures hovering at or around 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Aug. 31, in New Orleans and Houma, Louisiana. At the time, over 1 million residents were still without power across the state.

About 17 of the 91 deaths (18.7%) attributed to Ida were generator- or power outage-related, the CDC found.

Theophilus Charles, 70, weeps while sitting on the front porch of his heavily damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Houma, Louisiana, on Aug. 30, 2021. Charles, who hunkered down in the house through the Category 4 storm, says he has lost everything. (Reuters/Adrees Latif)

Overall, 28 people were killed in Louisiana, with another two deaths each in Mississippi and Alabama.

But the threat to life that Ida posed didn't end in the South.

Ida claimed at least 59 lives in the Northeast, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total death toll from the storm. At least 53 of the deaths were due to drowning, according to the report.

Jerilyn Collins returns to her destroyed home with the assistance of the Louisiana National Guard to retrieve medicine for herself and her father, and a few possessions, after she evacuated from rising floodwater in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, Louisiana on Aug. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

While Ida had long been downgraded into a tropical rainstorm by the time it reached the Northeast, it had fed on the contrast between warm, humid air south and east of the storm's center coupled with cooler air to its northwest, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Larson explained during early September 2021.

The resulting deluge prompted the issuance of the first flash flood emergency to include New York City, and the second to be issued by the National Weather Service's New York office. The first had been issued an hour earlier by the office and covered northeastern New Jersey.

Over 1,000 miles from where it had made landfall, Ida dumped a staggering 3.15 inches of rain within a 60-minute time span over New York's Central Park, shattering the previous one-hour rainfall record set two weeks prior by Tropical Storm Henri. A nightmare unfolded that night, as many of the deaths that were reported in New York and New Jersey were people who were unable to escape the basement or first-floor apartments where they lived.

Danny Hong shows where the water reached up to him as he shows the damage in his basement apartment on 153rd Street in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York on Sept. 2, 2021. Tropical rainstorm Ida dumped historic rain over New York City, with at least nine deaths linked to flooding in the region as basement apartments suddenly filled with water and freeways and boulevards turned into rivers, submerging cars. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

"The torrential rain from Tropical Rainstorm Ida on Wednesday night resulted in the most significant flash-flooding disaster in New York City history," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said at the time.

From its formation to its departure, Ida delivered over 5 inches of rainfall across at least 14 states, 10 of which had sites that recorded over 7 inches of rainfall from the storm, according to AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell, citing the NWS rainfall map.

AccuWeather meteorologists rated Ida a 4 on the RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes, which is used to highlight the threat of dangerous flooding and destruction all along the storm's path.

Like the seasons prior, AccuWeather forecasters are predicting another overly active hurricane season for the Atlantic basin in 2022, noting a high chance for a preseason storm to develop. Similar to the 2021 Atlantic season, AccuWeather is predicting the basin could generate 16 to 20 named storms, with 6 to 8 hurricanes, 3 to 5 of which could develop into major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher).

If the basin reaches the letter "I," the storm will be named Ian.

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