Doyle Rice

USA TODAY

Goodbye and good riddance Joaquin, Erika and Patricia.

The World Meteorological Organization on Monday retired the three names from its rotating list used for hurricanes and tropical storms in light of the death and destruction the storms caused last year.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Patricia was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in either the eastern Pacific or Atlantic basins. It weakened before landfall and hit a sparsely populated region of the west coast of Mexico, killing 8 people.

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Joaquin battered the Bahamas in October. It killed 34 people — all at sea — including the 33 crewmembers of the cargo ship El Faro, which sank during the storm northeast of the Bahamas.

Tropical Storm Erika, which lashed the Caribbean in August, killing 30, is only the second tropical storm to have its name retired. Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 was the only other retiree never to attain hurricane status. Allison, which caused $9 billion in damages, spurred one of the worst floods on record in Houston, according to the Weather Channel.

The World Meteorological Organization 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.

Including Erika and Joaquin, 80 Atlantic hurricane and tropical storm names have now been retired.

The organization will replace Erika with “Elsa,” Joaquin with “Julian” and Patricia with “Pamela” when the 2015 lists are reused in 2021.

Atlantic storm names can be either French, Spanish or English, reflecting the languages of the areas they can hit.