Economic cost of Harvey, Irma could be $290 billion
Hurricane hits Florida
MIAMI (AFP) — Hurricane Irma, which has toppled cranes, swallowed streets and left millions without power, weakened to a Category 1 storm Monday but remained dangerous as it continued its furious climb up Florida’s southwest coast.
Warnings of hazardous storm surges remained in effect through vast swaths of peninsular Florida, where more than six million people had been ordered to flee Irma’s path — one of the biggest evacuations in U.S. history.
“As little as six inches of moving water can knock you down,” tweeted the state’s governor Rick Scott following the downgrade. “Stay inside. Stay safe,” he added.
Maximum sustained winds had decreased to 85 miles per hour as of 2:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), with Irma projected to become a tropical storm as it moved into northern Florida or southern Georgia later Monday.
After wreaking a trail of death and destruction through the Caribbean, Irma had killed three people when it struck the southern Florida Keys island chain as a more powerful Category Four on Sunday. More than four million customers were without power throughout the state, according to Florida’s Division of Emergency Management. Florida Power and Light said it had “safely shut down” one of two nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point power plant.
Handfuls of holdout residents, having defied calls to evacuate, hunkered down as Irma tore over the Keys, ripping boats from their moorings, flattening palm trees and downing power lines across the island chain popular for fishing and scuba diving.
Hours later, one of the mightiest hurricanes ever to slam the state made a second landfall on Marco Island near the beach resort of Naples.
“I am concerned about people that don’t believe in the storm surge,” said Virginia Defreeuw, 76, who fled her mobile home in Naples to a shelter. “You need to be afraid of the storm surge! People are not listening.”
As Irma appeared to set its sights on the Tampa area — home to three million residents, about half of whom live less than 10 feet above sea level — some people were taken by surprise by Irma’s northwest shift.
Facing Irma’s wrath, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said the city did everything it could to get people out of the coastal areas. “I am sure there are still people that are still there, thinking that they can hunker down on this storm,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn told a press briefing Sunday, before paraphrasing a famous boxer’s words.
“I never thought I would be quoting Mike Tyson, but ‘Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face,’” he said. “Well, we are about to get punched in the face.”
President Donald Trump Sunday approved a major disaster declaration for Hurricane Irma in Florida, hours after Gov. Rick Scott requested it.
“Right now, we’re worried about lives, not cost,” Trump said.
While southwest Florida bore the deadly brunt of Irma’s wrath Sunday, the coastlines of Miami and the neighboring island of Miami Beach were heavily inundated by storm surges as hurricane winds sent two giant construction cranes crashing down.
The sea swallowed the coastal walkway of glitzy Brickell Avenue in the center of Miami, flooding the streets and leaving cars half-submerged.
“The wooden pier is basically gone,” said Steven Schlacknam, a 51-year-old visual artist watching from a 37th floor apartment. President Donald Trump, who vowed to travel to Florida “very soon,” approved the state’s request for emergency federal aid to help with temporary housing, home repairs, emergency work and hazard mitigation.
Meanwhile, the combined economic cost of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could reach $290 billion, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, U.S. forecaster AccuWeather said in a report Sunday.
“We believe the damage estimate from Irma to be about $100 billion, among the costliest hurricanes of all time,” said the firm’s CEO and founder Joel Myers. Harvey, which battered Texas and parts of Louisiana in late August, will be “the costliest weather disaster in U.S. history at $190 billion or one full percentage point of GDP” which stands at $19 trillion.
The report said it arrived at the figure by calculating disruptions to business, increased unemployment rates for significant periods of time, damage to transport and infrastructure, crop loss including a 25 percent drop of orange crop, increased costs of fuels including gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel, household damages and loss of valuable documentation.
Only a fraction of the losses would be covered by insurance, said Myers.