Key West is home to "America's Official End of the Hurricane Season Party." Residents said goodbye to the history-making season of 2005 by burning a pair of hurricane flags in a beach-side ceremony Wednesday.

Partygoers dressed as pirates doused the red and black flags
with rum to ignite them. Following a conch horn salute to storm victims, the Keys emergency management director and National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Strahan and used a propane torch to ignite the flags.

"I'm really glad it's over and I really hope it just stays over. Whoever came up with this idea of burning these flags is just a genius. Because they’re really symbolic of this hurricane season and I can't think of a better way of ending it then to destroy the symbol of these hurricanes."
This year's six-month Atlantic hurricane season brought 26 tropical storms. Thirteen of them became hurricanes.