Katrina's Cost to US economy could be TEN TIMES GREATER than 9/11

[theearthisround]

http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1073

Hurricane Katrina will be by far the costliest disaster in United States history, requiring $150bn (£81bn) to $200bn in relief, clean-up and reconstruction spending by the federal government, and causing the short-term loss of some 400,000 jobs.

This desolate picture emerges from preliminary estimates circulating on Capitol Hill and at the White House. Although the figures are highly tentative, it is already clear that the damage from the storm will eclipse the $20bn bill for the 11 September terrorist attacks and the $25bn losses after Hurricane Andrew in southern Florida in 1992 - hitherto the most expensive natural disaster.

In a first study, the authoritative Congressional Budget Office warned that the storm and its aftermath could lop up to 1 per cent off growth in the second half of 2005, which had been forecast at around 3.5 per cent. This implies lost output of around $55bn, based on a US gross domestic product of $11trn - a "significant but not overwhelming impact", the report says.

The CBO says the storm will cost 400,000 Americans their jobs but this could be offset when reconstruction work gets into full swing, boosting the southern economy in particular.

(more)
http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1073