2011 hurricane season costliest, deadliest in three years

This year is the USA’s costliest and deadliest for hurricanes since 2008. Two of the 17 storms that formed in the Atlantic - Irene and Lee - caused most of the damage. Hurricane Irene killed 45 people and caused at least $7 billion in damage, the National Climatic Data Center reports, making Irene the USA’s most lethal and financially damaging hurricane since Ike in 2008. Torrential rains from Irene led to catastrophic flooding in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. This season was also the seventh-busiest for named storms since record-keeping began in 1851.