Storms Wreak Havoc Through South At Hurricane Season's End

A powerful storm system ripped across the South on Monday into Tuesday, causing scores of injuries and damaging close to 100 residences.

The storm system working its way up the East Coast caused significant damage through Mississippi and Louisiana on Monday with reports of at least 17 tornadoes with winds reaching 125 mph through the two states, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service.

Mississippi's Emergency Management Agency said there were a total of 31 injuries from Monday's storms and two victims remained in the hospital. A total of about 236 residences were damaged, some completely destroyed, by the tornadoes and about 30 business were also affected in 10 counties. There were also reports of numerous power outages and flooding.

The National Weather Service reported that three tornadoes touched down in Louisiana, damaging a barn and tearing up electrical wires.

A tornado also touched down in Alabama, damaging several houses and destroying several outbuildings.

As the storm made its way through Alabama and Georgia and up into Virginia on Tuesday there were numerous reports of high wind incidents.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that 56 homes were damaged in Buford County alone and thousands were left without electricity throughout the state.

The storm system arrived as the Atlantic hurricane system came to end on Nov. 30. By all accounts, this year's season was as active as predicted with a total of 19 named storms, tying with 1887 and 1995 for the third highest on record, NOAA said.

Of the 19 named storms, 12 became hurricanes, tying 1969 for the second highest on record. Of those, five reached major hurricane status of Category 3 or higher.

This year's season continues a string of active hurricane seasons that began in 1995. While the climate was favorable for development of these storms, NOAA pointed out that short-term weather patterns dictated where the storms would travel. The warm and dry jet stream acted as a barrier keeping many storms in open waters.

However, other parts of the Atlantic basin were not as lucky, NOAA said, noting Hurricane Tomas brought heavy rains to Haiti. Mexico and Central America also took a beating with storms producing heavy rains and mud slides.

Colorado State University's Atmospheric Science Department, collaborating with the National Hurricane Center, released a report that said cool waters just below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, within 150 miles of land, caused the most intense hurricanes to "almost always lose intensity before they hit that part of the U.S. coastline."

Neena Saith, director of catastrophe response at RMS, noted that this hurricane season was unusual. "Only 1969 and 2005 have seen 12 or more hurricanes in the Atlantic, and both of those years experienced U.S. hurricane landfalls," she said in a statement. "While there have been other periods of high basin activity and a lack of U.S. landfalls, the 2010 season is unique in having had such a high number of hurricanes without any striking the U.S."

Warning policyholders about the potential for destruction, and urging them to prepare for next year, Don Griffin, vice president, personal lines for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said: "Americans along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts dodged a number of bullets this hurricane season. With such a large number of storms, we really beat the odds by avoiding any major hits or damages in 2010. We cannot always count on being so lucky."