DARTMOUTH, NS - April 30th, 2004 - The Honourable David Anderson today announced that Environment Canada has succeeded in its bid to have the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) officially retire the name 'Juan' from its rotating list of hurricane names. Environment Canada requested that the name 'Juan' be retired in consideration of the devastating impacts of Hurricane Juan on the people of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It is the first time that Canada has requested the retirement of a hurricane name.

“Withdrawing the name 'Juan' from the WMO list of hurricane names shows a measure of respect for the tragic loss of life” said Minister Anderson. “It also recognizes the conservative estimates of more than $100 million in damages to the personal property and the livelihoods of people living in the Maritime provinces.”

Whenever a hurricane causes a loss of life, great damage or has a serious economic impact, the impacted country may request that the WMO retire the name from the list. Retiring the name of a notable storm prevents confusion of a historically well-known storm with a current one. So far the WMO has voted to withdraw and replace more than 50 names on the list.

The name 'Joaquin' was chosen to replace 'Juan' on the list. Because the WMO committee decided to retire the name 'Juan', they had to select a replacement name which maintains the gender and ethnicity of Juan. The hurricane names 'Isabel' and 'Fabian' were also retired, replaced by 'Ina' and 'Fred' respectively.

For more information on hurricanes please visit Environment Canada's Canadian Hurricane Centre Web site at: http://www.atl.ec.gc.ca/weather/hurricane/

For more information contact:
Peter Bowyer
Program Manager, Canadian Hurricane Centre
(902) 426-9181