Meteorologist Bryan Bennet on Facebook:
Hurricane Helene will likely be one of the top 10 most costly (natural or industrial) catastrophes to ever occur worldwide.
The most expensive events to occur worldwide (in descending order): Chernobyl, three different earthquakes in Japan & China, Turkey-Syria earthquake, then hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, & Ian.
Accuweather is estimating that the storm will cost 110 billion dollars. I honestly think it will go much higher once the scope of damage becomes more visible from Florida through the Carolinas.
I know financial cost isn’t the most important aspect right now, but it is a useful metric to express the enormity of this catastrophe.
Another traditional metric for reporting disasters is death toll. That generally refers to deaths directly due to the storm, fire or earthquake, and doesn’t typically include the secondary death toll (electrocution by downed power line or CO poisoning from running home generators). Then there is the long tail of individual PTSD, impoverishment and suicide or the death spiral of damaged communities.