CASTLES MADE OF SAND*

Sand Pile and Sky, Baton Rouge LA 2007

All reproduction rights reserved Wm. Greiner

Gustav, Ike retired as hurricane names

The names of the two hurricanes that affected Louisiana in 2008 have been retired by the World Meteorological Organization. The organization’s hurricane committee retired Gustav and Ike from the official name rotation; those names were scheduled to be used again in 2014. In their place will be Gonzalo and Isaias. Gustav made landfall near Cocodrie on Sept. 1 as a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The hurricane caused more than $4 billion in damage to Louisiana; it plunged parts of the Capital Region into darkness for several weeks. Gustav killed 112 people, including 77 in Haiti. Ike made landfall at Galveston, Texas on Sept. 13 as a Category 2 storm. It killed more than 80 people across the Caribbean and Bahamas, and another 20 in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. The total estimated U.S. property damage from Ike is estimated at $19.3 billion.**

*"Castles Made of Sand" is a song by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and featured on their  second studio album, Axis: Bold As Love, released in 1967 in the UK and 1968 in the U.S. 

**The Baton Rouge Business Report 4-4-09