The Effects of Natural Disasters on Economics

Natural Disasters are never a good thing. In areas where they happen, they affect everything in a negative way. They can destroy whole town, cities, the economy, infrastructure, and in some cases the human population. They wreak havoc on whatever they touch. Probably the thing that it affects the worst, besides the population, is the local economy. Everything else can be fixed, some of which with federal funds, such as infrastructure or public buildings. The economy though, is harder to fix. The government can’t just repair the local economy to what it is was before. It requires the people of the area to do that, but that’s really hard to do when pretty much everything you’ve ever known is destroyed. They have to worry about their loved ones and getting the basic necessities of life before they worry about getting a job or reopening, possibly even opening, their business.

That’s why the economy recovering in natural disasters takes time, and sometimes won’t recover depending on how bad the disaster is. This is shown in the article in this quote, “Disasters also appear to have adverse longer-term consequences for economic growth, development and poverty reduction.”. Some people will just move if there is really nothing left for them after a disaster. That only makes it harder for the economy to recover, but who could blame them. They have nothing left and probably lost their job after the disaster. Government policies try to help fix the economy to some degree after a disaster, but this doesn’t completely solve the problem. It only helps. One of these programs is FEMA. They provide shelters and food and everything else that people might need to survive when they lose everything. There is also a government flood insurance program, to help relieve the financial burden of having to build a new house if it gets destroyed in a flood. They help stimulate economic growth by trying to solve the problems that they can for people, so that the people can get back to work or back to running a business so that the economy can start to grow again.

Recently, when Hurricane Harvey occurred, it decimated south-east Texas’s economy. It flooded a huge part of the area. On a national level, it didn’t affect our economy too much yet, but I’m sure it will make a dent in it considering how badly Houston was hit by the storm. The only major thing it has affected so far is the gas prices because the refineries in Texas will have to close for a period of time. The trading on oil commodities has caused the price to go up. The kinds of business who make money during times like these are grocery stores, since they usually sell out of everything, and gas stations. Every company that has things that people will need will benefit in the short term. In the long term, construction and other trades similar to that will flourish because of all of the work they will have, and they will be able to charge higher prices because they have a surplus of available job opportunities. The businesses that will get hurt most by natural disasters are luxury stores and restaurants, and really anything leisure related. For at least a short period, the people in the area will not have the time or money to go to or buy from those types of places. Natural Disasters, especially Hurricanes, really destroy local economies, and I don’t see a way to prevent this, except with things that can be done for the infrastructure through the government.

Works Cited

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