forecasters said next year should be much slower.

The 1995 season saw a near record 19 tropical storms with 11 forming into hurricanes of which five were classified as killers.

Internationally renowned hurricane forecaster, Dr. William Gray, predicted a calmer 1996 season.

Dr. Gray, of Colorado State University, said he expected eight tropical storms from which five hurricanes and two intense hurricanes will form.

Bermuda was hardest hit -- financially and politically -- by Hurricane Felix which delayed the August Independence referendum and caused about $2.5 million in damage, mainly to the South Shore area.

The Island also had brushes with Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn which both swept safely past causing little disruption.

Dr. Gray, whose research team has won international awards, dumbfounded forecasters this year predicting 1995 would see 16 tropical storms -- nine of which would become hurricanes, three of them killers.

"When we first issued our forecast, many people thought we had gone too high.

As it turns out, we didn't go high enough,'' said Dr. Gray.

The 19 tropical storms that formed in the Atlantic and Caribbean during the 1995 season was the second-highest on record.

The National Hurricane Centre said 11 became hurricanes, with five classified as killers in Category 3 or higher with sustained winds of at least 111 mph (180 kph).

Although Bermuda escaped relatively unscathed, the storms claimed some 123 lives, hurricane centre statistics say, and caused at least $5 billion in damages in the United States alone and billions more in Mexico and Caribbean islands such as Antigua, Anguilla and St. Maarten.

The worst of the storms were Hurricanes Luis, Marilyn and Opal, which struck within days in August and September.

Luis, which hit the Caribbean's Leeward Islands, caused $2.5 billion in damages and 16 deaths.

Marilyn, which smashed into the US Virgin Islands, killed eight and caused $1.5 billion in damage.

Opal, which socked Florida's panhandle and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, was blamed for 59 deaths and nearly $3 billion in damages, making it the second-costliest US hurricane on record, after 1992's devastating Andrew.