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$350 million; 3,000 jobs
Weeks after hurricanes Helene and Milton, Florida businesses and their employees are still paying a staggering toll, reports Tampa Bay Times. According to claims business owners have voluntarily filed with the state, $350 million in damages have been reported statewide. More than half was concentrated in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, covering nearly 2,000 businesses, making them the hardest hit in Florida. As of Nov. 1, damages had forced about 2,300 people across those counties out of work temporarily. Another 700 had lost their jobs permanently.
+$50 billion
Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused so much damage, government and private experts say they will likely join the infamous ranks of Katrina, Sandy and Harvey as super costly $50-billion-plus killers, reports the Associated Press. Worse still, most of the damage — 95% or more in Helene’s case — was not insured.
40 trillion
More than 40 trillion gallons of rain drenched the Southeast United States in the last week from Hurricane Helene and rainstorms that sloshed in ahead of it — an unheard of amount of water that has stunned experts, the AP reports. That’s enough to fill more than 60 million Olympic-size swimming pools, the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium 51,000 times, or Lake Tahoe just once.
