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The Street
The Street
Ross Kohan

Hurricane Helene recovery could cost billions

Transcript: 

Conway Gittens: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.

Wall Street ended a volatile week on an upswing thanks to a September hiring surge. By all accounts the closely watched employment data pointed to a labor market that’s in good shape. The report was too strong, though, to support hopes of another large interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Attention now turns to consumer and producer prices in the coming week. And Pepsi, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo will kick-off the start of earnings season.

Related: Flight canceled due to Hurricane Helene? Here is how to get that refund

In other news: the 2024 hurricane season isn’t over yet and the costs are piling up. Hurricane Helene could cost the economy more than $34 billion by herself, according to Moody’s Analytics. In comparison, the U.S. economy was hit by $93 billion in weather and climate related damage for all of 2023, government statistics show.

Packing winds of 140 miles per hour and accompanied by flood-inducing rains, Helene battered the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida - resulting in a large swath of property damage. Nearly 1 million people lost power.

But getting power back is just the beginning of a long and costly recovery process. And to make matters worse, only 6 percent of homeowners have flood insurance coverage of any type. That means many will be relying on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fill in the gap. FEMA, however, is running low on funds and will need a cash infusion from Congress.

With lawmakers not due back to Washington until after the elections, repair money is likely to take a long time to get where it needs to go.

That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.

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