http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/10/news/snowstorm-economic-impact/index.html?iid=SF_E_LN
Many businesses are still suffering from the economic effects
of October’s storm- Sandy. This weekends blizzard which affected many areas of
the Northeast made this situation even worse. More than 5000 flights were
cancelled, nearly 700,000 people were out of power, rail transportation wasn’t working
and in some states the US Postal service did not deliver. Snowstorms affect the
flow of supplies, communication, they kill off livestock, hourly workers lose wages
because everything closes down and a lot of money has to be spent on snow
removal and reparation of damages. In 2010, more than $2 billion were just in
insurance-related damages. According to the Labor-Department, workers are more likely
to skip work because of bad weather in winter than in the summer. This is also
because the storms in winter usually affect broader geographic areas than the
disasters in the summer.
4 comments:
Do you think that given the recent slew of natural disasters, businesses will begin to adress how they can minimize future losses from them? If so, what do you think they can/will do?
I feel like when it comes to nature, there is only so much we can do to mitigate the damages. For example, when a big storm comes, airlines have no choice in the matter but to cancel all the flights. So I think until we invent a way to control nature, losses caused by natural disasters are inevitable.
Weather has an effect on many things, most of which involving transportation and workers not going into work. However, do sales boom just before a winter storm because people are afraid of not being able to travel? Do they boom after because people need to restock on what they used up during the storm?
This begs the interesting question of whether climate change is something that can be denied anymore. Often, it's been touted as a liberal agenda, but clearly, given the increasing frequency of these storms and their evidenced economic impact, maybe climate control is something that the government needs to start taking more seriously.
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