New Energy Weekly – Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton devastated western Florida just weeks after Hurricane Helene impacted those same areas

Some of our Mangrove Investor team were affected, so please be patient while we get back on schedule.

For some of us old-timers, this storm gave off Hurricane Andrew vibes. Back in 1992, Hurricane Andrew was the most destructive storm to ever hit Florida. And this is a state prone to major hurricane strikes. It remains only one of four Category 5 hurricanes to ever hit the continental U.S.

I saw Miami immediately following the storm. Houses were completely gone. Only the concrete foundations remained. It destroyed 63,500 houses, damaged 124,000 others, and killed sixty-five people. In total, it caused about $27.3 billion (equal to $60 billion today). Analysts at giant bank RBC estimate Hurricane Milton could cost $60 billion.

The reason a storm like Milton can cause as much damage as Andrew comes from two factors. We continue to build homes in areas that are prone to flooding and we don’t maintain our infrastructure.

That causes insurance claims to soar. But there is some good news. Some companies realize that hardening infrastructure can save them money over time.

For example, in our little coastal town, the power company spent the last year or more replacing all the old power poles. On the beach road, they took down the wooden poles and put in tall, thick concrete poles. In the residential areas, they took down wooden poles and replaced them with larger diameter, taller wooden poles.

That provides our power supply with some resilience, which saves the power company money on storm response. In the 60+/- hours of high winds from both Helene and Milton, our group was only without power for about 12 hours. That’s a significant improvement.

We need more investment in hardening critical infrastructure like power systems. And we need to see more companies investing to withstand these more frequent weather events.

For the Good,

The Mangrove Investor Team