Ken Kaye writes in the South Florida Sun Sentinel: “Three Atlantic hurricane names — Gustav, Ike and Paloma — have been retired after those storms killed more than 200 people and left billions in damage during the 2008 season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

Those names would have been used again in 2014 based on a six-year rotation overseen by the World Meteorological Organization. In their place will be Gonzalo, Isaias and Paulette.

Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County, said storm names are retired “for reasons of sensitivity.”

“That’s why you’ll never hear the name Katrina again or Andrew, for that matter,” he said. “It would be very inappropriate.”

Hurricane Gustav killed 112 people. It struck Haiti in August as a Category 1 hurricane, killing 77. It then struck Cuba as a Category 4 system. It made landfall again near Cocodrie, La., on Sept. 1 as a Category 2 hurricane, causing more than $4 billion in damage.

Hurricane Ike killed more than 80 people across the Caribbean and Bahamas, and another 20 in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas in early September. It caused about $19.3 billion in damage.”

Full story in The Sun Sentinel.

Photo from Time.