The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday announced the decision to withdraw "Irene" from the official list of Atlantic basin tropical storm names.

Hurricane Irene hits the East Coast of the U.S. in August, 2011, and leaves US trail of destruction 1,100 miles long. [Agencies]

The decision to remove "Irene" from the rotating namelist of tropical cyclones was taken during the WMO Hurricane Committee's annual meeting in Florida. The Committee, which is responsible for the list of storm names used every six years for both the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins, decided to use the name "Irma" to replace "Irene."

"Irene", which became a hurricane on August 22, 2011, caused widespread damage across the Dominican Republic, Haiti and a large portion of the eastern United States.

The hurricane was directly responsible for 49 deaths in the three countries and its damage in the United States alone was estimated to be 15.8 billion U.S. dollars.

"Irene" is the 76th name to be retired from the Atlantic list since 1954. Previous withdrawals include "Katrina," "Andrew" and "Mitch."

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