Helene Damage Could Reach $250 Billion.

Facebook Tweet LinkedIn

The total economic damage from Hurricane Helene could reach $250 billion, making it the most expensive storm in US history. The violence and breadth of the Category 3 storm started in Florida. They did its most damage in western North Carolina, severely damaging areas that may not recover for years.

*More Hurricane News

*Who Are Hurricane Deniers?

*Homes Of The Rich At Risk

AccuWeather forecasts strom damage. It continues to increase its estimates, ranging from $225 billion to $250 billion.

The AccuWeather estimate methodology has been criticized as too broad and speculative. The forecast company defines how it reaches its total–

AccuWeather incorporates independent methods to evaluate all direct and indirect impacts of the storm, includes both insured and uninsured losses and is based on a variety of sources, statistics and unique techniques AccuWeather uses to estimate the damage. It includes damage to property, job and wage losses, crops, infrastructure damage, interruption of the supply chain, auxiliary business losses and flight delays. The estimate also accounts for the costs of evacuations, relocations, emergency management and the extraordinary government expenses for cleanup operations and the long-term effects on business logistics, transportation and tourism as well as the health effects and the medical and other expenses of unreported deaths and injuries

Other research firms only use insured losses as their metric. The AccuWeather figure is too broad to be correct, but the insured loss method is too narrow.

Atlantic Storms

Methodology aside, hurricanes, particularly those that start in the Atlantic and are fed by warm Caribbean water, form into violent storms more quickly than at any time in recorded history. A Category 1 hurricane can become a Category 3 hurricane in less than two days. Helene was among the largest storms to hit the US geographically, which made it unusually destructive.

The number of these fast-forming, violent storms is likely to increase.