Florida just can't seem to catch a break. The Sunshine State already has to contend with Zika, as well as its effect on the tourism sector, and now it has one more thing to worry about: Hurricane Matthew, the Category 3 storm that tore through Haiti and has recently made landfall in the United States.
Civilians were warned to evacuate well in advance, and the Coast Guard is ready to deal with whatever it has to. However, no amount of preparation will likely prepare Florida for the economic blow Matthew will deal to the state — even if the storm has weakened during its warpath.
To be clear, hurricanes don't typically harm a nation's growth and, for the most part, much of the initial losses in the region can be offset later. For example, economic activity can be spurred by repairing or rebuilding damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure. Disruptions to retail and other businesses can be partially made up in the following weeks or months when consumers are ready to make up for any purchases they missed out on during the initial recovery period.
However, Hurricane Matthew might present one of those situations outside the norm. Why? Because Florida already has its own fair share of problems and Matthew's arrival is only making things worse.
To start, Zika is still a problem that Florida (South Florida, really) hasn't found an answer to yet. There have been some strides, like the CDC recently lifting the travel warning for the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami-Dade County, but there still remains plenty of work to be done and Matthew could negate previous efforts and actually make the situation worse.
"So in the first wave of wind, heavy rains, and storm surge - it could even have a beneficial effect in terms of washing away mosquito breeding sites," says Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and the dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College. "But then as the waters recede, it could leave residual reservoirs of water in human-made containers that could breed Aedes aegypti."
As Hotez made clear in his statement, this situation is merely hypothetical. However, even if this situation doesn't come to pass, there is still the issue with tourism that Zika has caused.
In a report last month, travel insurance provider Allianz Global Assistance revealed that Zika has caused the number of people planning to travel to Florida during the fall and winter to drop by nearly 15 percent. Instead, tourists are going to Arizona, Southern California, or headed up north to New England and Canada to enjoy their vacation.
Potential tourists are already concerned about Zika, and it's unlikely that the passing of a Category 3 storm will make their decision to come to Florida any harder. After all, why go on a vacation in an area that is still in the middle of recovering from a hurricane?
According to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, there is plenty for Florida to recover from, estimating total economic losses to be in the tens of billions of dollars, potentially rivaling the nearly $70 billion in damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy.
Individually, these are bad for Florida, but together they're a nightmare.
As mentioned before, it isn't like Florida won't ultimately recover from all this, but the state already has plenty on its plate and Matthew has potentially made things a whole lot worse.
