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US snowstorm to cost multi-billion dollar economic losses: Report

Monday, 25 January 2016 2:40 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 25 January 2016 2:42 PM ]

A snowplow clears snow on Lexington Avenue in New York City during the snowstorm on Sunday, January 24, 2016. (AFP photo)

The historic snowstorm that paralyzed much of the US East Coast in the past few days and killed about 30 people is likely to cause "multi-billion" dollar economic losses, a report says.

Although New York City emerged on Sunday from the massive blizzard, the nation's capital and surrounding areas remained in a snowy gridlock as federal, state and local governments and schools planned to remain closed on Monday.

"Given the physical damage to homes, businesses and other structures and automobiles, plus the high costs incurred due to business interruption, it is expected that this will end up being a multi-billion-dollar economic cost," reinsurance broker Aon Benfield said in a note on Monday.

The blizzard was one of the worst storms in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region in over a century, Benfield added.

Benfield said a similar storm system in 1996 caused an estimated economic loss of $4.6 billion and insured loss of $920 million in current dollar terms.

The monster weather system, unofficially dubbed Winter Storm Jonas, left about 30 dead in several states, with most of the fatalities the result of traffic accidents and heart attacks while shoveling snow.

On Saturday, more than a dozen people were killed in storm-related automobile crashes in Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.

One person died in Maryland and three in New York while shoveling snow. Two died of hypothermia in Virginia, and one from carbon monoxide poisoning in Pennsylvania.

The storm, which set a new single-day snowfall record in Washington, DC, and New York City, walloped a dozen states from Friday into early Sunday, affecting an estimated 85 million residents.

The 26.8 inches (68 cm) of snow that fell in New York's Central Park was the second-highest accumulation in the city since records began in 1869, and more than 22 inches (56 cm) paralyzed the capital Washington.

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