Hurricane Irma caused $8.6 billion in insured losses

Claims data is still rolling in for Hurricane Irma, which caused much more damage than previously thought. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation revised its estimate of insured losses from the
September 2017 storm to $8.61 billion on Thursday, up $1.7 billion from estimates five months ago.

"This upward trend is not unexpected as companies continue to adjust and close claims," Erin VanSickle, deputy chief of staff for OIR, said in an email. "OIR will continue to monitor the financial strength of companies and the way they are responding to customers and will continue to regularly post claims information on the OIR website. "

The names Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate will never again be used for Atlantic hurricanes because of the devastation those storms caused in the 2017 season.

On Thursday, a committee of the World Meteorological Organization decided to replace those names with Harold, Idalia, Margot and Nigel when the list is recycled in 2023.

The nations hit by a storm can request to have its name removed if it would be traumatic for it to appear again, and the 2017 season left few corners of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico unscathed.

The flooding from Hurricane Harvey was nothing short of catastrophic in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana because the large storm stalled for days in late August. The 60.58-inch (or 5-foot) rainfall total in Nederland, Texas broke the record for heaviest hurricane rainfall measurement in U.S. history by 8 inches.

Hurricane Irma's Category 5 winds of nearly 180 mph leveled buildings and vegetation in the Leeward Islands in early September, then ended with a destructive combination of waves, storm surge, rain and tornadoes across Florida.

Life in Puerto Rico is still far from normal after a worst-case scenario strike from Hurricane Maria in mid-September. The storm was blamed for at least 100 direct deaths between Dominica and Puerto Rico, but the number of indirect deaths due to the massive disruption is still unknown.

In early October, flooding from then-Tropical Storm Nate claimed 44 lives in Central America. Nate proceeded north to hit the central U.S. Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane and brought minor rainfall to Virginia.

The National Hurricane Center concluded that Harvey and Maria will likely rank as the second-costliest and third-costliest storms in U.S. history, respectively, with 2005's Katrina still the highest (accounting for inflation).

An uneasy, uncertain eye toward the 2018 season

It's too early to know exactly what will transpire during the hurricane season that runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, but a handful of outlooks released this spring predict more than the average number of storms.

That news earned some ominous and sensational headlines online, but what will ultimately happen on land remains a mystery whether there are many storms or just a few.

Hurricane activity in the Atlantic could be bolstered or stymied depending on the Pacific's El Niño-La Niña cycle, and the eventual state of it during late summer is notoriously difficult to predict in mid-spring.

One of the few things we know for sure is that the first storm to develop will take the name Alberto.

Sandy was stricken after its disastrous impact in the 2012 season, so if we manage to get to the "S" storm this year it will be called Sara, instead.

The complete Atlantic name list for 2018 is:

Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sara, Tony, Valerie and William.