AccuWeather increases damage estimate for Hurricane Helene to at least $225 billion

AccuWeather

As the extreme scope of Helene's damage has become clearer in the days since the storm, AccuWeather is estimating total costs from the hurricane to exceed the GDP of the country of Hungary.

Transcript

00:00Joining us now, as we mentioned earlier, is AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.

00:05And, John, we have had some tremendous, tremendous impacts here.

00:09And the full scope and scale of this disaster is becoming a little bit more obvious.

00:15And we understand that as the death toll has risen

00:18and as we've learned more about what's going on, especially in western North Carolina,

00:22we've had to increase the economic damage and impact estimate.

00:27We have had to increase that estimate as more and more reports have become available

00:32from some of the hardest-hit areas.

00:34In a disaster, it always does take some time to get those reports from those high-impact areas.

00:39So today, AccuWeather experts upgrading our preliminary estimate for total damage

00:44and economic loss to $225 to $250 billion.

00:50It really puts into context just the scale of the devastation.

00:55It's going to be one of, as we've been talking about,

00:57one of the country's most costliest and damaging natural disasters in history.

01:03And as we put this up against Ian,

01:05we had been talking about how Ian was the high-water mark for very recent years,

01:09and we've exceeded that.

01:11We have, and this is not good company.

01:13These were all very damaging storms.

01:15Take a look at Ian, $180 to $210 billion.

01:18So our new estimate is above that.

01:21Also comparing to Florence, this was a very devastating storm across North Carolina as well,

01:26of $50 to $60 billion.

01:28So you can see just the scale difference here in terms of the devastation.

01:32And I also want to point out the heartbreaking personal tragedies.

01:36Certainly our thoughts are with all the people whose lives were changed forever

01:39in the matter of just a few moments.

01:41We know that our warning saved many, many lives,

01:45but it's been very tough to see the impact that the communities have been facing.

01:50Absolutely, John.

01:51And one way to look at some of these outages, you know, we've talked a lot about western North Carolina.

01:56We've talked a lot about the storm surge.

01:58But the area around Augusta, Georgia, has really, when the lights went out, they didn't come back on here.

02:03I'm going to loop this again, John.

02:04We're looking at the night sky, the nighttime city lights,

02:08and that power outage is a real dark spot on the map.

02:11Right, all the way from North Carolina through portions of South Carolina

02:14and also Georgia really stands out.

02:16And this was what we were emphasizing in advance.

02:18The storm was getting slingshotted inland,

02:21and so that allowed those damaging wind gusts of 60 to 80 miles per hour

02:25all the way up into Georgia and even portions of South Carolina

02:28and also into portions of North Carolina, the high ground there,

02:31where all that devastating flooding occurred.

02:33So the power outage impact has been very significant,

02:36and there's still such a significant need for the basics, food, water,

02:41and also prescriptions for people that need that.

02:44We've had so many basic needs that people are going to need to help with here now and in the coming weeks.

02:49There's some great people doing things with helicopters, too,

02:52civilian efforts with helicopters to get insulin to people who need it and oxygen and so forth.

02:57Well, John, we're always looking ahead here at AccuWeather,

02:59and whether it gets officially named or not, we have big concerns about Florida next week.

03:04We do, from a heavy rain perspective especially.

03:07Look, there's disorganized showers and thunderstorms in the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea.

03:12The question is, will this be able to consolidate into a tropical storm perhaps in the southern Gulf of Mexico?

03:19Either way, we're talking about a significant flash flooding risk across Florida next week.

03:24And we do feel confident that this will be at least what we will call a tropical rainstorm here forming next week.

03:30So where are the impacts going to be in Florida?

03:32Well, we've been stressing the corridor from I-4 southward,

03:35so the Tampa area, Orlando southward toward Miami, and also the Florida Keys.

03:41That's where the danger is greatest for heavy rain.

03:44And look at these totals from the AccuWeather exclusive rain forecast.

03:48Eight to 12 inches are possible in total from Tampa down toward Miami.

03:53And the biggest concern here with an AccuWeather local storm max of 30 inches over this time period from Sunday to Wednesday

04:01is that if we end up with persistent torrential rain in one of these big cities,

04:06Tampa or Miami, Fort Lauderdale for example, that can lead to major life-threatening flooding very quickly.

04:12So we want everybody in Florida to be paying even more attention to the AccuWeather forecast in the coming days.

04:19All right, John, we appreciate your reporting as always with the inside scoop there and the look ahead.

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