WMO Hurricane Committee has retired Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate from the list of rotating names because of the death and destruction they caused during the 2017 Atlantic season pic.twitter.com/MIbLJgSZuV — WMO | OMM (@WMO) April 12, 2018

The meteorological organization retired the four names from its rotating list used for hurricanes and tropical storms in light of the death and destruction the storms caused. The criteria and that a storm be "so deadly or destructive that the future use of the name would be insensitive," and those storms reached that level after the destruction they caused, in areas such as Houston, Puerto Rico, Dominica, the Florida Keys and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Thursday that hurricane names Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate will be replaced with Harold, Idalia, Margot and Nigel. Storm names have been retired since 1954. pic.twitter.com/6G3fFhLeyB — Steve Bowen (@SteveBowenWx) April 12, 2018

In 1953, the U.S. began using female names for hurricanes and, by 1979, male and female names were used. More: It's going to be another busy, above average hurricane season, meteorologists say

In all, 86 hurricane names have now been retired. At least 68 people died from the direct effects of the storm in Texas, the largest number in that state since 1919

Harvey was most notable for its destructive and record-setting long duration rainfall, when Houston was buried under almost 3 feet of rain." Irma lashed the Caribbean and the U.S., making seven separate landfalls as it tore across the islands and the Southeast U.S. A Category 5 storm at its height with winds of 178 mph, Irma killed more than 100 people and devastated the island of Barbuda and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Irma made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Florida Keys on September 10the and struck southwestern Florida as a Category 3 the same day. Hurricane Maria, with winds of 172 mph at its height, ravaged the island of Dominica as a Category 5 on Sept. 19 and later devastated Puerto Rico as a high-end Category 4 hurricane, producing catastrophic damage to the U.S. territory. The storms being retired this year include:
• Hurricane Harvey, which pounded Southeastern Texas for days with historic rainfall and catastrophic flooding, is the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history after Katrina. The official death toll remains artificially low according to an investigation by The New York Times, which found that the number of hurricane-related deaths probably exceeds 1,000. "Hurricane Nate crossed northeastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras as a tropical storm, then made landfall on the northern Gulf Coast as a category 1 hurricane.
Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate join the list of retired Atlantic hurricane names.