Sandy to surpass Katrina as costliest storm in U.S. history?

[jinftl]

Not the first expert in the field to mention this...Bryan Norcross (for those who don't know of him, search Bryan Norcross and Hurricane Andrew on youtube and get ready to be impressed) suggesting when all is said and done, the dollar estimates are all tallied, Sandy could surpass Katrina in $ damage...all from a storm that brought no hurricane sustained winds to the u.s. Three weeks after Katrina, total damage estimates were not as high as they ended up being - things are still being tallied and with the # of people impacted by Sandy, we could easily see another $20-$30 billion added...or more...


The toll and trauma from Sandy continue to mount with cost estimates skyrocketing. Sandy could end up with a price tag higher than Katrina's. And the heartbreaking reality that the devastated neighborhoods will take years to put back together, and will never be the same, has set in.

Where will the money come from to rebuild? Many people had no flood insurance. What will they be allowed to rebuild? What should they be allowed to rebuild? Where can they go in the meantime in a region famous for high rents and housing challenges. These are extremely difficult questions to answer.

Other states have gone through this wrenching slog after major hurricane disasters, of course. Florida after Andrew; Louisiana after Katrina; Texas after Ike. Things HAVE TO change. But it's a staggeringly difficult process for the governments and the people in the middle of it.

And there are mountains of other questions that need answers. The biggest one, of course, how did a well predicted storm that did well predicted things cause so much hardship and death?

Bad storms do bad things, but when we know the bad things are coming, and hundreds of thousands of people don't protect themselves, a hard look at the processes and policies that were executed is required.

link to rest of blog: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/bnorcross/show.html

[tolakram]

Are they indexing for inflation? 2005 was 7 years ago, and figuring a conservative average of 3% inflation per year would make $1 of Katrina cost into $1.23 today.