The $150 Billion Hurricane????

[recmod]

Fox News is now reporting that Hurricane Katrina's cost, including damage and cleanup, could exceed $150 Billion!!! :

From FoxNews.com:

WASHINGTON — Cost estimates for relief and recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina are running as high as $150 billion, making it clear that a federal budget deficit picture that only weeks ago seemed to be brightening has now gotten considerably worse

--Lou

[feederband]

Its only money.........I just hate that so many people stayed and lost their lives...

[Pebbles]

I totally agree that lives lost are heartbreaking. But I don't like when people say it's only money. Lives OVER money, TOTALLY back you there. But money is important.

Actually I can pretty much guarentee the damages and costs are going to be over 150 billion unfortunately. When people have lost everything they own, which they have worked their whole lives for, such as a home, clothing and other nessesities for day to day living "only money" becomes a huge issue for them! "Only money" mean that buisness will end up closing and the people they employed will no longer have a job to go back to. How are they suppose to support their families with no money?

I will share a bit of personal info here. I had at one point in my life nothing owned but 2 bags of cloths, no job, not enough education, no income and a 8 month old baby to care for. Yes, I even spent 3 months in a shelter. It took YEARS to get to the point I am now, with much blood, tears, and baby stepping to get there. And I wasn't competing with hundreds of thousands of other people who were all in the same boat for resources/jobs to get back on my feet.

It is a hit on pride to ask for help from agencies when you want to provide for yourself and family. I am sure it is a hit on the pride of allot of small buisness owners that have no buisnesses now and know not only they, but their employees, are suffering from lack of income.

I'm not bashing you or anything, just trying to get people to think about how money is important, while agreeing the deaths are horrid, there are many that have to keep on living for themselves and their family too. Think of how many lives are effected when min. $150 billion dollars are involved. I think the poster was more trying to point that out.

[CaptinCrunch]

CNN is reporting $200 BILLION + in rebuilding>

[Jim Cantore]

first of all

$150 billion is absolutly overhyped I dont think so

second of all

10,000 might be dead but some stations seem more concerned about cost

sure the cost is staggering but the loss of life is even more staggering and a more important issue at this time

[f5]

CNN is reporting $200 BILLION + in rebuilding>

Yup and i bet 2/3 of that is to rebuild a city below sea level

[Pebbles]

first of all

$150 billion is absolutly overhyped I dont think so

second of all

10,000 might be dead but some stations seem more concerned about cost

sure the cost is staggering but the loss of life is even more staggering and a more important issue at this time

Yes loss of life is staggering and number 1 concern at this time.

But on the overhyped estimates...
I wouldn't be so sure... think of it this way. I've been looking at how much houses are in Chicago right now. They are going for 250 to 350k for a 3 bedroom ranch style house! I mean these are not big houses, and we are not talking suburbs here, this is in metro chicago. Now mind you housing may be cheeper down there but lets say houses alone are $150,000 to build for average sized family (think this is a reasonable estimate, mind you that would be on an already cleared piece of land). Now multiply that by the thousands of homes that have been destroyed. Now add in appartment buildings, nursing homes. Then you have buisnesses, then you have contents in the homes and buisnesses.

Clean up, Detoxing what ever it is they detoxing in N.O and maybe other area's, cost of redoing electrical, gas, sewage, phone, cable, water, transportation (highways, trains) Rebuilding/repairing/upgrading levie's to prevent a repeat. Rebuilding beaches, removing debris. Mightest well damage to all the factories and refineries down there, dredging the canals and rivers. Replacing vehicals, trucks, trains, boats/barges, busses. And the list goes on and on and on. Will N.O. be the brunt of the cost. Absolutely. It's amazing what is just CRAMMED into a highly populated metro area. And all this is AFTER the cost of relocating and caring for people.

I will tell you one thing for sure. After floyd every house that had even 1 inch of water sitting in it for more then a few days was considered condemed and had to be razed to the ground. Look at the sat pics of the flooded area. Start counting all the homes and buisnesses in the N.O. area and SE of N.O. that has been sitting in water. Now realize all those buildings have to be completely knocked down, removed (and now this material will be considered a hazardous material since the water is now very contaminated adding to removal/transportation costs), and then rebuilt. Mightest well all the damage that happened in the rest of 3 states and you got the costs just skyrocketing.