Natural Disasters are Great for a Recession

"According the model, a hurricane with wind speeds of about 100 miles per hour — making it a 'weak' Category 2 storm — might cause on the order of $35 billion in damage if it were to pass directly over Manhattan…. Although far from the most likely scenario, this may represent a reasonable-worst-case estimate of what could happen if Hurricane Irene took exactly the wrong turn at exactly the wrong time…. Keep in mind that New York’s annual gross domestic product is estimated to be about $1.4 trillion — about one-tenth of the nation’s gross domestic product — so if much of the city were to become dysfunctional for months or more, the damage to the global and domestic economies would be almost incalculable."
—Yes sure, but one thing that America's statistics boyfriend Nate Silver neglects to mention in his review of the costs of hurricanes is that… these are the kind of natural disasters that are good for America in a more fundamental way than the often a bit false economies perpetrated by cities like New York. They create thousands of jobs, put people back to work and drain the bloated coffers of the insurance companies. A good natural disaster has been shown to be, setting aside, you know, the people who die and/or lose everything of personal value, absolutely great for the country.