HURRICANE IRMA
HURRICANE IRMA RECOVERY:
Will $100 billion in business flow to Florida’s
construction industry in the next 18 months?
Florida Construction News staff writer
The devastation from Hurricane
Irma has touched the heart and soul
of Florida’s communities – setting in-
credible challenges for the state’s
construction industry both in immedi-
ate crisis management and longer-
term recovery.
There are stories of heroism, com-
munity spirit, and adapting to situa-
tions that would be unfathomable if
you weren’t actually living through
them. There also will be opportunities
because much of the billions of dol-
8 – FALL 2017 — Florida Construction News
lars to rebuild the state’s homes, busi-
nesses, and infrastructure will flow to
the architectural, engineering and con-
struction businesses throughout the
state. Florida Construction News invited
readers to tell their own survival/expe-
rience stories, and these are detailed
in a separate article.
It is early going, and the data is
rough, but some indications are that
the construction industry may see an
unprecedented business boom in
through the next year.
“We believe the damage estimate
from Irma to be about $100 billion,
among the costliest hurricanes of all
time,” Accuweather president Joel
Myers said in a statement. “This
amounts to 0.5 of a percentage point
of the GDP of $19 trillion.”
Taking another comparison into ac-
count – statewide building permit data
– you can see the implication of the
storm on Florida’s contractors and
suppliers. The US Census Bureau reports that
there were $25.86 billion in permits is-
sued statewide in 2016.
If Ac-
cuweather’s Myers is correct, this