Rare winter storm causes billions in economic loss for South

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Jon Porter reports preliminary estimates totaling between $14 and $17 billion in damages and economic loss due to the historic winter storm that swept through the Southern states.

Transcript

00:00John, thank you so much for taking some time to talk with us about this historic storm.

00:05And even with the numbers behind you, it's historic when it comes to how much we've lost

00:11in terms of economic losses, too. Yeah, there was a big impact there. Of course,

00:16this storm was notable in so many ways from a historic context, as you and Bernie were talking

00:22about, but also caused damage and significant disruption to commerce and to businesses and

00:29everyday life. AccuWeather estimates preliminarily $14 to $17 billion in total damage and economic

00:37loss from the snow, the ice, and the extreme cold and all those impacts. And what we always like to

00:43do is put that estimate for total damage and economic loss, which is a more holistic estimate

00:49than is available from any other source. We like to put it into context with recent disasters. And

00:54you can see the $14 to $17 billion here, far under the $250 to $275 billion from the California

01:02wildfires just in recent weeks, and also far under the Texas and eastern U.S. deep freeze from 2021,

01:11which AccuWeather estimated total damage is economic loss of $155 billion. So about 10 times

01:18less on this most recent cold wave, but a very significant one. And, Bri, one of the reasons

01:22that that number is as high as it is, is we were talking about significant delays and closures

01:29across Interstate 10 from Houston to New Orleans, east to the Florida Panhandle, a major thoroughfare

01:36of commerce across the Gulf Coast. And, of course, big cities shut down, not for one day, but

01:43effectively multiple days, as they're going to continue to deal with this, the impacts of the

01:47snow and ice and extreme cold. And you can see why here, John. We had plenty of snow. It was hard.

01:55You couldn't even get to the airport, which is why they did have to shut down. Here are some of the

02:00highest totals that we did see. Very significant for this part of the country. Of course, in this,

02:06near the Gulf Coast, even an inch of snow is significant to so to have almost a foot of snow

02:11in some locations. This is one that people could live in this area for their entire lives

02:17and not see a storm like this. And, you know, talking about the snow along the Gulf Coast,

02:23it wasn't just the Gulf Coast. It really extended along the east coast of the U.S. as well. It did.

02:29And we were talking about this all day yesterday here with our snow experts on the AccuWeather

02:34Network, that as the storm pulled to the east, there'd be more sleet and freezing rain concerns

02:39in the Jacksonville to Savannah area, but then up on the Carolina coastline, another area where there

02:45could be three to six inches of snow right along the coast. And so once again, some of those

02:50beautiful pictures that you just showed out of Myrtle Beach there, where you have snow accumulating

02:54right at the beach. It's so rare in this part of the country. Yeah. And you know, John, speaking of

03:00how rare it is, we broke records across a lot of the Gulf Coast. He does break this number down

03:06really quickly. In New Orleans, for example, there was three inches of snow that occurred in just two

03:12hours, which is a very impressive feat. If you look at some of the other significant snows in

03:17the New Orleans area over the last 50 or 60 years, that might have been two point seven inches of

03:23snow. So we had more than that in just two hours. So those snow totals of eight to 10 inches of snow

03:30across the New Orleans area, a truly historic storm not seen since the big snowstorm there in

03:361895. You have to go all the way back to 1895 to find similar snow totals in the New Orleans area.

03:43And remember, people in that area are going to be dealing with these impacts here for days

03:47because it's going to take a lot to get rid of all of that snow and ice from the roadways.

03:52Wow. You know what it means when we say a once in a lifetime storm. AccuWeather chief meteorologist

03:58John Porter, thank you so much for breaking down some of those numbers for us and breaking down

04:03this very rare storm.

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