The cost of a hurricane: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound cure

The cost of cleaning up and rebuilding after hurricane Katrina is expected to top $60 billion, and Rita will cost another $6 billion, in insurance claims alone.

What can you get for $66,000,000,000? Well besides going to a McDonald’s and ordering ~63 billion cheese burgers (damn sales tax), you can launch the space shuttle 66 times, buy 17 aircraft carriers (if they give you a volume discount), pay for all the oil the USA uses for 125 days, make long distance phone call that lasts 1.3 million years or give everyone on the planet $10 and still retire one of the richest people in the world.

Seriously here is the thing the Army Corp of Engineers had asked for $14 billion dollars to reinforce the levees, and rebuilt all the barrier islands and marshes that protect the Gulf coast, by blocking the storm surge. Now let’s assume they had gotten the money and been able to do the work before Katrina and Rita hit. That $14 billion could have prevented say $57 billion dollars in damage. (My guess comes from what hurricane Andrew cost, since most of its damage was from rain and wind.) That is a savings of $43 billion dollars, and we would get environmental and economic benefits (from increased habitats for endangered species to large oyster and shrimp harvests) so it pays for itself directly.

Now then let’s say it would cost $25 billion to fix up the Gulf Coast (when was the last time the government did anything at or under budget?) Ok the total cost of the two hurricanes is expected to exceed $200 billion, most of which the government (and the tax payers) will pay for, so their spending money anyways. Which is less $25 or $200 billion? I am not saying the damage could have been prevented, but if we could have spent $25 billion and kept the cost of the hurricanes at a “reasonable” $3-6 billion each the worst case scenario savings is still $163 billion. Had Rita stayed Category 5 and hit Houston directly the total cost would have been closer to a trillion dollars (Houston is a big, rich city and not far above sea level, and a trillion is a million million.) Boy $25 billion is getting cheaper and cheaper.

The environmentalists should be ready with a plan that includes a cost/benefit analysis; if Congress doesn’t buy it I bet the insurance companies will give it serious consideration (and make Congress buy it). The irony of GreenPeace and the Sierra Club working with the Army Corps of Engineers, with the support major corporations would be truly glorious!