Female-Named Hurricanes More Deadly than Manly Storms

There is a reason that hurricanes Sandy, Irene and Katrina are in the history books as some of the most deadly and destructive: they are named after women. According to new research from the University of Illinois, hurricanes with feminine names are likely to be more deadly than their masculine counterparts, apparently because female-named storms are perceived as less threatening.

After analyzing more than six decades of death rates from US hurricanes, researchers found that severe hurricanes with a more feminine name result in a greater death toll, simply because such storms are underestimated in their power. As a result, people leave themselves vulnerable by taking fewer protective measures.

"The problem is that a hurricane's name has nothing to do with its severity," lead author Kiju Jung said in a university news release. "Names are assigned arbitrarily, based on a predetermined list of alternating male and female names," he said. "If people in the path of a severe storm are judging the risk based on the storm's name, then this is potentially very dangerous."

For storms that occurred between 1950-2012, the more feminine the storm's name, the more people it killed. The team's analysis suggests that changing a severe hurricane's name from the masculine "Charley" to the feminine "Eloise" could nearly triple its death toll.

"In judging the intensity of a storm, people appear to be applying their beliefs about how men and women behave," co-author Sharon Shavitt added. "This makes a female-named hurricane, especially one with a very feminine name such as Belle or Cindy, seem gentler and less violent."

Before the 1970s, meteorologists gave hurricanes only females names, but then adopted the alternating female-male naming process to avoid sexist remarks.

Hurricanes kill more than 200 people in the United States each year, and severe hurricanes are capable of killing thousands, the report notes. Such gender stereotyping has important implications for policymakers, meteorologists, the news media and the public regarding proper hurricane communication and preparedness.