2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season Wraps Today
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MIAMI (CBSMiami/CNN) - Today is the last day of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. For many, it couldn't end soon enough.
This year was the most expensive hurricane season on record. The nightmare of a season brought 17 named storms, ten of them hurricanes and, for the first time ever, three reached Category 4 status; Harvey in Texas, Irma in Florida, and Maria in Puerto Rico.
In an average season, we see 12 named storms, seven hurricanes, and two major hurricanes.
While this year's season was above average, it was not a record breaker. That would go to 2005 when there were 28 named storms, 15 hurricanes, and seven major hurricanes. In the year 1961, we also saw seven major hurricanes.
The Atlantic saw a record 10 consecutive hurricanes this season - tying a record that was set in 1893.
Hurricane Harvey dumped an estimated 27 trillion gallons of rain over Texas and Louisiana during a six-day period. Some areas got over four feet of water, which was the most rainfall amount from a single storm in the continental U.S. The heavy rains inundated Houston and surrounding areas with unprecedented flooding.
An oddity in the 2017 Season was Hurricane Ophelia's path which was very unusual. Fueled by warm ocean waters, Ophelia traveled farther east than any major hurricane to date in the Atlantic. The previous record was held by Hurricane Frances in 1980
Ophelia, which at one point was a Category 3 hurricane, weakened as it moved northeast and reached Ireland as a post-tropical storm.
The reported death toll from 2017's Atlantic storms now stands at 438 - although the actual number may be higher.
Research scientists Chuck Watson and Mark Johnson say the storms that came ashore this past season cost more than two-hundred billion dollars. That includes at least $32 billion in damages from Maria, $60 billion from Irma and $114 from Harvey.
For comparison, the damage from Katrina in 2005, which has been the costliest hurricane in US history, was $108 billion.
Since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in mid-September, the island has struggled to restore water and power. The official death toll there stands at 58, but a CNN investigation revealed 499 deaths recorded by funeral homes that could have been caused by the storm.
Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 hurricane, was the strongest storm to hit Puerto Rico in 85 years.
About 61% of the power has been restored in what has been considered the largest blackout in US history, according to economic research firm Rhodium Group.
The 2018 hurricane season will officially start on June 1st, but tropical storms have been known to form in the Atlantic as early as January.
(©2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. CNN contributed to this report.)
