130 Million Dollar Hit For Jacksonville Hurricane Financial Estimates

On August 30, 2017, the Atlantic ocean gave birth to a massive category 5 Hurricane named Hurricane Irma. Hurricane Irma affected places like Puerto Rico, Cuba, and especially Florida. In fact, Florida got the worst of it. With tremendous amounts of flooding throughout the state, the storm left 10 million without power. This figure accounts for approximately 73.33% of the state. Overall, the storm caused over $64.1 billion dollars worth of damage. The state also received wind gusts of up to 142 mph and wind speeds up to 112 mph. Unfortunately, 93 individuals died in Florida as a result of the storm’s impact. Drowning, trauma, and carbon monoxide poisoning accounted for most of these storm related deaths.

Jacksonville is a city in Florida that was relatively impacted by the storm. Both flights for arrival and flights for departure were cancelled at the Jacksonville airport. Parts of Jacksonville actually had a decent amount of flooding. In fact, the city had historical amounts of flooding. Most of this occurred in the St. Johns River which flooded to record highs. This flooding happened in the downtown area of Jacksonville in particular. 350 people were rescued and brought to safety in these parts of the city. The flooding got so bad that it was 5 feet high in some homes. Overall, the city of Jacksonville had a total of $85 million in estimated damage. The city had not seen this amount of flooding since the year 1846. This was the year after Florida had become a state.

Hopefully, the city of Jacksonville can get reimbursements from the government and fast! Until the government can help out the city with the overall damage, the funds will have to come out of the city’s general fund budget. A reports projects that the estimates of the financial impact that Hurricane Matthew are around $45.1 million. As of the beginning of February, Jacksonville has obtained around $28 million in expenditures from Hurricane Matthew. The reports states that 87.5% of those expenses can be covered by government reimbursement while the city will have to come up with the funds for the remaining 12.5%.

As far as Irma is concerned, the damage is much more worse than Hurricane Matthew’s damage. The report states that the city has incurred around $86.4 million in overall damage due to the flooding, the trees, the winds, and a variety of other factors. The report says that this damage could create negative impact within the government supplies department in the future. It states that it could set the GSD back by $10.8 million. As of the beginning of February, the report states that Jacksonville has obtained around $45.8 million in expenditures related to Hurricane Irma. This figure nearly doubles the Hurricane Matthew expenditures that were previously mentioned.

Right now, the city’s general fund budget remains at $1.27 billion. The city also has $150 million in reserves if they need to use it for whatever reason. However, before Irma hit the city of Jacksonville, the city council was against strengthening the reserves in the general fund budget. The Mayor of Jacksonville even stated back in September that he believed that the city had enough reserves to weather the storm. Well, the mayor was tremendously mistaken, for Hurricane Irma created a way larger impact on the city than the general public previously believed. With reimbursements not coming fast enough for the city to fully recover, we wonder if the city will have enough in reserves for this upcoming summer.

Due to all of this mess down in Florida, many banks and credit unions are reluctant to give people loans on a variety of things. Luckily, Four Wheels Lending can get you approved! They make it easy to take out a short term loan without have to go through a strict financial institution or having to go through your family. Applying is very simple and can be done on their website. The reason that this title loan company is superior to others is because they don’t check your credit, you’re able to keep driving your car, their online application is simple and easy, and you can receive cash within 24 hours. However, there are a few things that you need to find out before applying. You need to know the make and model of your vehicle, its mileage, your zip code, your name, and your contact number. All in all, it’s sad that Hurricane Irma had to impact so many people’s lives in a negative way. Leverage these title loans so you can get back on the road and recover fast!