Hurricane Irene Could Another Katrina!

I pointed out last week that the US was more than likely going to get hit with a major hurricane. While the projections at the time pointed to Florida (projections that far out are shots in the dark) the overriding theme was to prepare for a major hurricane sooner than later.  Then earlier this week, as I pointed out in my most recent post, then Tropical Storm Irene was showing signs of hitting the east coast and possibly New York City.  Now, Irene is a category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 mph with a northerly movement. I'll be posting updates on my FACEBOOK FANPAGE which sends updates to my twitter page.





Even though the eye of the hurricane is relatively small, the overall size of the hurricane is almost the size of Texas!

The 1938 hurricane rainfall totals were extensive. Irene could mirror these totals.

Should this hurricane hit anywhere from NYC to Long Island as the projections have been indicating over the last 24 hours, the cost could be mindboggling.

Nate Silver, a statistician who has a column on the New York Times website called fivethirtyeightblog calculated what the cost would be if a hurricane hit New York City. His results are mindnumbing:

The bottom line is that this hurricane could be another Katrina OR WORSE!  The economic impact will be long lasting.  Gas prices for us will shoot up!  Cost of food will climb.  The financial markets will be hit hard.  If this happens, the cost will be felt by EVERYONE!