Perilous
Times
Irene damage could be 'tens of billions'
by Staff Writers
New York (AFP) Aug 28, 2011
Hurricane Irene is expected to inflict tens of billions of dollars
in damage before it concludes a three-day sweep that has left a
trail of havoc from Atlantic beach resorts to Manhattan high
rises, officials and others said Sunday.
Assessments were just starting to come in, but as the massive
storm moved into New England it was already clear that it had
caused widespread flooding and structural damage across a vast
swath of the US eastern seaboard.
"I've got to imagine the damage estimates will be in the billions
of dollars if not the tens of billions of dollars," said Governor
Chris Christie of New Jersey, whose famed "Jersey shore" was shut
down as hundreds of thousands of people fled the state's long,
vulnerable coastline.
Irene weakened to tropical storm status Sunday as it crashed into
New York City, the National Hurricane Center said, but the still
powerful storm was flooding parts of lower Manhattan.
Experts said the financial toll would be much higher if, as
transpired, there was a direct hit on New York, the US financial
capital and largest city with nearly 19 million people living in
its metropolitan area.
Economist Peter Morici put the immediate casualty losses from the
storm at $40 billion, including the loss of two days of economic
activity.
But Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland, said the
impact would diminish significantly over the longer term as
reconstruction spending kicks in, injecting fresh spending in
recession-weakened regional economies.
"Rebuilding after Irene, especially in an economy with high
unemployment and underused resources in the construction and
building materials industries, will unleash at least $20 billion
in new direct private spending-likely more as many folks rebuild
larger than before, and the capital stock that emerges will prove
more economically useful and productive," he said.
Another silver lining is that the storm made landfall over a
weekend, mitigating the economic impact in coastal cities although
dealing a direct hit to the tourist industry at the peak of the
summer beach season.
Kinetic Analysis Corp., a company that does computer modeling of
predicted storm damage, predicted Friday that Irene would cause
$5-10 billion in damages, based on the latest available weather
data.
Losses could include damage to flooded buildings, business
interruptions and cleanup costs picked by the government, said
Chuck Watson, the company's director of research and development.
Reporting on Sunday, the company said losses in North and South
Carolina, the first states hit as Irene made landfall on Friday,
are expected to range between $200 million and $400 million.
The costliest hurricane in US history was Katrina, which flooded
New Orleans in 2005 and is estimated to have caused more than $133
billion in losses.
Irene was the 10th major weather-related disaster in the United
States this year, making 2011 a record year, according to a study
by the National Climactic Data Center of such events going back to
1980.
Major floods, drought, tornados and a blizzard had already
inflicted more than 35 billion dollars in damage this year, said
the study, which was posted on the website of the National
Oceonographic and Atmospheric Administration said.
Irene threatens extended flight chaos
New York (AFP) Aug 28, 2011 - Hurricane Irene air chaos threatened
to last well into the week, after the giant storm forced the
cancellation of more than 10,000 flights across the eastern United
States, officials said Sunday.
Aviation industry officials said New York's international airports
would only start to reopen on Monday afternoon. American airlines,
British Airways, Air France and other carriers have already called
off many flights to and from Europe and Asia on Monday.
Even though Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm on Sunday,
the New York mass transit system remained closed, along with train
traffic across the northeast United States and many ports.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs New York
region airport and port facilities, said it had not determined
when airports would open.
"I can't even give you a guesstimate," authority spokesman Steve
Coleman told AFP.
Flights resumed in the Washington region but remained severely
disrupted.
The Federal Aviation Administration said more than 10,000 flights
have been cancelled from Florida up to Massachusetts since Friday
because of Irene, with the number of disruptions set to increase.
Tom Hendricks, vice president of the Air Transport Association, an
industry body, said airlines "slowly repositioning" jets and crew
that were hastily moved away from the storm's path.
He said operations in New York would resume Monday afternoon but
added "it will take a couple of days to get the networks back."
Jet Blue chief executive Dave Barger told CNBC television his
company's first flight from New York would be at 3:00 pm (1900
GMT) on Monday. The US domestic carrier accounts for more than 10
percent of the cancelled flights.
Irene forced the New York city subway and bus system to close for
the first time because of a weather disaster. Mayor Michael
Bloomberg has warned that trains and buses may not be running
again until Monday afternoon.
The New York subway is one of the world's biggest with 468
stations served by some 6,380 cars.
The transport authority was worried that the 13 subway tunnels
that go under the rivers that surround Manhattan could be flooded.