Farewell Hurricanes Matthew and Otto, hello Martin and Owen

There will never again be a Hurricane Matthew or a Hurricane Otto.

Because of the hundreds of people killed and the catastrophic damage that both storms wreaked last year in the Caribbean, the U.S. and Central America, both names have officially been retired by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which is in charge of naming hurricanes.

Matthew, which became a Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale on the night of Sept. 30, battered several countries as it rampaged through the Caribbean and the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. It made landfall along the coast of southwestern Haiti, extreme eastern Cuba, western Grand Bahama Island and central South Carolina.

Matthew was responsible for 585 deaths, making it the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Stan in 2005, NOAA reported. More than 500 deaths from Matthew occurred in Haiti.

Matthew also caused $15 billion in damage, which is the ninth-costliest hurricane on record, according to reinsurance firm AonBenfield.

Otto was a late-season hurricane, cutting a swath through the southwestern Caribbean Sea beginning Nov. 20. It intensified rapidly to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall in southern Nicaragua. Heavy rainfall and flooding from the hurricane caused 18 deaths in Central America.

The WMO reuses storm names every six years for both the Atlantic and eastern Pacific basins. The nation hardest hit by a storm can request its name be removed because the storm was so deadly or costly that future use of the name would be insensitive.

The removal also avoids confusion caused by a future storm having the same name.

Matthew will be replaced with “Martin” and Otto with “Owen” when the 2016 lists are used again in 2022.

There are separate lists for hurricanes in the Atlantic and the Pacific, as well as for typhoons in the western Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. The lists of names are determined years in advance.

Matthew is 4th "M" storm to be retired (the others were Marilyn, Mitch and Michelle), according to atmospheric scientist Brian McNoldy of the University of Miami (Fla.)  He said Otto is the second "O" storm to be retired; the other being Opal.

Including Matthew and Otto, 82 Atlantic hurricane and tropical storm names have now been retired.

This year's Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1 — with the name Arlene.