[andsoitis]

> Florida was obliterated in 2024

That’s an huge exaggeration. FL was not obliterated in 2024.

Stats:

Total storms 18

Hurricanes 11

Major hurricanes (Cat. 3+) 5

Total fatalities 401

Total damage $128.072 billion

(Third-costliest tropical cyclone season on record)

[addicted]

That damage is like 10% of Florida’s GDP.

That’s absolutely nuts.

It’s also a lot worse than the pure numbers suggest because the damage here is taking away actual built up stock, so capacity for generating future GDP. And the GDP in Florida includes a lot of economic activity used to rebuild after past damage.

And all of this without Miami even being flooded out of existence. Miami can’t even build dikes due to the porous ground it’s built on.

[swiftcoder]

The weird part of living near the tropics is we all look at that and go "not too bad a hurricane season". Everyone not-from-the-tropics stares at your list in horror.

[Theodores]

I forgot that any exaggeration is not allowed on HN!

128 billion dollars is equivalent to 200,000 homes, or even more, which does not represent total obliteration, however, if that level of devastation happened in the UK, the only comparison would be what the Luftwaffe did during WW2.

[andsoitis]

> 128 billion dollars is equivalent to 200,000 homes, or even more, which does not represent total obliteration,

As of 2023, FL has over 10.4 million homes.

> however, if that level of devastation happened in the UK, the only comparison would be what the Luftwaffe did during WW2.

If you are referring to The Blitz, the numbers I have access to is that over 1.1 million homes and flats were destroyed in London alone.

[Theodores]

Those 1.1 million homes were destroyed over a period of years, not days.

[andsoitis]

you compared the two, not me (" the only comparison would be what the Luftwaffe did during WW2.")