Hurricane Helene Damage Could Hit $160 Billion.

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The estimate of Hurricane Helene’s financial damage continues to rise. AccuWeather now puts the figure as high as $160 billion, only second to Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Louisiana coast and New Orleans in August 2005.

AccuWeather says the total economic damage will be between $145 billion and $160 billion.

High Estimate

Accuweather’s estimates are almost always higher than others because of the elements they consider. “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.”

‘Helene shows the extent to which warming water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico rapidly fuel storms. The water temperature in the region is as much as 8 degrees F above the recent average. Helene increased from a Category 1 to a Category 4 hurricane in less than three days. Beryl followed a similar strengthening pattern, becoming a Category 5 hurricane in early July.

$1 Trillion

Unfortunately, at least one more tropical storm may form in the Gulf later this week. It could hit some parts of the US that Helene already damaged.

These strings of hurricanes could turn this year or some year shortly into one with damages to top $1 trillion in a single year.