Financial losses are estimated at only $7 billion. It's always better to be prepared for the worst case scenario so lives can be saved and people prepared. The storm was still deadly and costly but it could have been much worse. As bad as the economy is these days the storm could have easily have wiped out any growth for the quarter.
Hurricane Irene will take a very small bite out of a U.S. economy already struggling with debt and unemployment after businesses across the East Coast closed their doors ahead of the deadly storm.Beyond the economic impact, some of the historic covered bridges in Vermont have been swept away by the storm. Really sad.
For rich nations, catastrophes often appear as mere blips in economic growth charts, with rebuilding efforts making up for output lost to disaster.
That should be the case for the United States this year, with the blip tame because Irene weakened as it marched north and failed to cause as much damage as was feared in New York City.
