$200M+ : Cost of Spoiled Food from Beryl

Assumptions: – 1M+ households without power for 3+ days – 1 refrigerator per household – $200 average cost of spoiled food per refrigerator (conservative estimate for the cost to restock back to original level) – Number of refrigerators powered by generators is exceeded by the number of households with multiple refrigerators or freezers without generators

This is just one relatively small cost of damages by Beryl. Imagine the total cost including other things like:

• Value of human lives lost from heat and outage related causes
• Lost wages from days not at work
• Lost revenue from businesses not operable
• Damages to homes and vehicles from fallen trees, etc.
• Cost of increased future insurance rates for all property owners (residential, commercial, etc.)
• Cost of taxpayer dollars for storm cleanup

Any bets on the total “cost” of Beryl and consequential events?

Note: This post is not meant to trivialize the impact of Beryl on individual people. Quite the opposite, the impact is mind-boggling, irrespective of the root causes and political posturing.

Stay safe everyone. Remember, we are Houston strong!