Cost Estimates Soar for Hurricane Helene

Cost Estimates Soar for Hurricane Helene

Cleaning up after Hurricane Helene in Canton, North Carolina
Reuters
By Michael Rainey
Thursday, October 3, 2024

Hope you’re having a good Thursday – and happy Rosh Hashanah to those who celebrate!

As part of an effort to appeal to voters across the political spectrum, Vice President Harris traveled today to Ripon, Wisconsin, where the Republican Party got its start in the 1850s. Harris was joined at a rally by former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, a staunch conservative who, along with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, has endorsed the Democratic nominee.

Meanwhile, Republican nominee Donald Trump said Thursday that he would revoke legal protections for thousands of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and deport them if he regains control of the White House. He also baselessly claimed that people suffering in the wake of Hurricane Helene are getting “no help” from the federal government because the Biden administration spent so much money on immigrants.

Here's what else is happening.

Hurricane Helene Damages Could Top $250 Billion, Analyst Says

The death toll continues to rise in the wake of Hurricane Helene, as officials announced Thursday that more than 200 people have lost their lives throughout the Southeast as a result of the storm. Estimates of economic losses are climbing, too, as the staggering level of destruction becomes clearer each day, ranging from flooded homes on the west coast of Florida to buildings swept away by swollen rivers in the mountains of North Carolina.

Early estimates of the cost of the storm were in the $30 billion range, with Moody’s Analytics saying late last week that the storm could cause $34 billion in damages. As the scale of the damage became clearer, those estimates have risen sharply, with AccuWeather citing a range of $145 billion to $160 billion earlier this week. On Thursday, AccuWeather raised that number again, and now pegs its estimate of “total damage and economic loss” tobetween $225 billion and $250 billion.

Not all analysts measure the cost of storms the same way, and AccuWeather’s estimate is higher in part because it includes a wider range of items, including “the horrific loss of life, the immediate and long-term costs of healthcare for storm survivors and injured first responders, extended power outages, major infrastructure reconstruction projects for utilities, highways, bridges and railroad tracks, major business and travel disruptions, as well as long-term losses to tourism, technology, renewable energy and other industries across the southern Appalachians and southeastern U.S.”

But the estimate is also higher because the storm was so much bigger than expected, with experts saying the hurricane released more than 40 trillion gallons of rain – an unprecedented amount of precipitation.

No matter which valuation is used, Helene will be remembered as an exceptionally large and damaging storm. “This is going to be one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history in terms of total damage and economic loss and the tremendous and urgent humanitarian crisis that is going on right now,” Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, told Bloomberg.

Reviewing the storm’s damage in Florida and Georgia Thursday, President Joe Biden called for bipartisan cooperation in responding to the storm. “In moments like this, it’s time to put politics aside,” he said. “It’s not one state versus another — it’s the United States.” Saying the relief effort would no doubt cost billions of dollars, Biden asked lawmakers to provide help quickly. “Congress has an obligation, it seems to me, to ensure states have the resources they need,” he said, adding that aid “can’t wait. People need help now.”

Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Program Clears Legal Hurdle

A federal judge allowed a restraining order against President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan to expire Thursday, clearing the way for the administration to finalize a program that could provide loan forgiveness to more than 25 million Americans.

The program had been on hold following a lawsuit filed by seven Republican-led states – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio – claiming that the program would harm tax revenue in their states, among other issues.

U.S. District Judge Randall Hall ruled that Georgia, where the suit was filed, lacks standing to challenge the plan because the states “failed to show an injury that is concrete, particularized, actual, or imminent.”

The Biden administration released the plan in April, following the Supreme Court’s rejection of an earlier effort that would have benefited 43 million borrowers at an estimated cost of $400 billion over 10 years. Estimates of the cost of the revised plan vary widely, from $75 billion over 10 years to more than $450 billion.

$1.5 Billion for US Electrical Grid

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday that it is spending $1.5 billion on projects that will expand and upgrade the electrical grid in six states.

The money will flow through the Transmission Facilitation Program, with funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021. Projects receiving funding will produce about 1,000 miles of new transmission infrastructure in Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, providing 7,100 MW of new capacity. The DOE said the projects would create nearly 9,000 “good-paying” jobs.

The projects include a new substation in Maine, a 400-mile transmission line connecting Texas and Oklahoma, and a new 108-mile transmission line in New Mexico. The DOE said that with today’s announcement, nearly all of the $2.5 billion provided to the Transmission Facilitation Program by Congress has now been committed.


Correction: President Biden visited North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday to review storm damage from Hurricane Helene, but not Georgia as we stated. Vice President Harris Biden visited the Augusta Emergency Operations Center in Georgia on Wednesday, and Biden traveled to Georgia and Florida on Thursday. Send your feedback to yrosenberg@thefiscaltimes.com.

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