The death toll from Hurricane Helene, as of late Oct. 1, is more than 150 people, with vast devastation across six Southeastern states along the 500-mile storm path. More than 1.2 million residents were without power as of this morning. At least a thousand are in shelters. Thousands of structures are destroyed—homes, factories, utility plants, schools, churches, government buildings, roads, bridges, farms, crop storage, and more.
Beyond the present emergency phase, focussed on saving lives and dealing with immediate shorages and threats, there is the national shock that the decrepit U.S. economy lacks the capacity to rebuild the region. This refers to physical inputs, labor, and credit.
Take the power sector, for example. At peak, some 6 million people had no electricity during the storm. However, in many locations, power systems will have to be rebuilt, not just re-hooked up—hundreds of substations were destroyed in flooding. There will be a need for hundreds of transformers and other components. This will create backlogs and pressure throughout the country.
