Hurricane Sandy’s Rising Costs

Published: November 27, 2012

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest request for federal aid to help New York recover from Hurricane Sandy presents a shattering picture of what a giant storm can do to a dense metropolitan area. The total price tag, he said, would be more than $42 billion: $33 billion to repair damaged housing and infrastructure and $9 billion to help protect transit systems, the power network and sewage treatment facilities from future storms.

Cuomo, in Aid Appeal, Cites Broad Reach of Storm (November 27, 2012)

Times Topic: Hurricane Sandy

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This is a financial cost that only Washington can afford, but, given the worries about the deficit and the so-called fiscal cliff, this is a difficult time to be asking Congress for help. The task now is for Mr. Cuomo to join with other claimants — including Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who estimates the damage to his state at $29.4 billion — in a unified effort to persuade President Obama and Congress to support one or more supplemental appropriations by the end of the year. It would be folly to wait for the next Congress, when the sense of urgency would have faded.

Mr. Cuomo has finally added important and much-needed detail to his earlier proposals for aid. He estimates, for example, that it will cost more than $5 billion to repair substations, tracks and equipment for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as well as another $124 million to compensate the authority for lost revenues.

Hospitals and other health facilities in New York will need more than $3 billion to restore services. More than 300,000 housing units were destroyed or damaged, costing $9.6 billion to replace or repair, with $3.1 billion of that in New York City alone. Government response efforts cost $1.6 billion, and businesses lost $6 billion.

These numbers ought to impress even a tightfisted Congress. But perhaps the governor’s strongest argument is that, historically, Washington has not been miserly after major disasters. According to Albany’s estimates, Hurricane Katrina exacted $146 billion in damages, in today’s dollars; the federal government came up with more than $110 billion. The multiple disasters inflicted by Hurricane Sandy call for similar magnanimity.

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