Tropical Storm Nicole - Planning Institute of Jamaica

VI. MACROECONOMIC IMPACT OF TROPICAL STORM NICOLE
C. SUMMARY OF THE DAMAGE AND LOSSES
The total cost of damage and losses associated with Tropical Storm Nicole was estimated at
$20.58 billion (US $239.6 million 19 ), disaggregated as $19.51 billion in damage and $1.07
billion in losses 20 . With regard to total damage, publicly owned properties accounted for
$19.32 billion or 93.9 per cent, while privately owned properties accounted for the remaining
$1.26 billion.
The approximately $20.6 billion in total cost represents 1.9 per cent of 2009 current GDP.
This was, however, dwarfed by the 8.0 per cent of GDP that Hurricane Ivan racked up in
2004, but similar to 2.0 per cent of GDP as a result of Tropical Storm Gustav in 2008.
Consequently, the shock to the economy associated with Tropical Storm Nicole caused a
detraction of 0.1 percentage point from GDP estimates, resulting in a new projected annual
GDP change of -0.6 per cent.
As evidenced by the sums provided in Table 25 the country’s infrastructure was severely
affected, with damage amounting to $18 089.0 million and losses of $28.4 million, translating
in a total cost of $18,117.4 million. This represented 88 per cent of the total cost. Costs
associated with the impact on the productive sector ($763.0 million), social sector ($1 641.6
million), the Environment ($7.6 million) and expenditure on emergency operations ($48.9
million) accounted for the remaining 11.9 per cent (see Table 25). Damage to the
transport/roads and bridges was the most significant. The roads under the responsibility of
the National Works Agency were the worst affected, followed by Parish Council and farm
roads. While the devastation was islandwide, the parishes in the western section of the island
were the hardest hit.
19 Exchange rate: J $85.89 = US $1 (Bank of Jamaica Exchange Rate for September)
20 The estimates delineated for losses may be underestimated as at the time of writing the relevant data were
not fully tabulated.
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