Multiply that by, oh, 1.5 million. Consider the devastation and loss of personal ID, bank records, etc.
This is going to put the hurt on for a LONG time.
The whole country will be reeling from this -- for months, if not years.
I think that is something that has not registered with most people yet due to us all still being in shock.
Besides the obvious -- the loss of close to a quarter of our oil refinery capacity, and the loss of the crucial pipelines taking refined petroleum products and natural gas to the eastern seaboard and the midwest -- there is the less obvious impact that will hit due to the losses of businesses, offices, records, and so forth.
Look at all those highrise office buildings, then consider that it will be months before anyone can go back to work in them. If ever.
In a way, the economic impact on the country might be WORSE than the loss of the WTC.
This is going to be a really rough winter for the entire nation. I'm buying all the gasoline I can afford right now (fortunately I have a safe storage location), and I hope to have several cords of firewood at the ready. We filled our heating oil tanks a few months ago, back before oil started its present race to reach escape velocity, so we saved a considerable amount there, but unless we burn a fair amount of wood too, it won't be enough to carry us throught the winter.
I will not be surprised to see $7.50 a gallon gasoline by winter, if not sooner. I also won't be surprised if it goes higher than that.
I hope I'm wrong, but I cannot rationally come up with any scenario that would provide for an alternative to that nightmare.
The proposed release of Strategic Reserve oil is a meaningless feelgood gesture IMO intended only to "ensure domestic tranquility". The oil is stored in salt domes. When it is pumped out of storage, it is "salty". This means that the refiners cannot simply put it into the "input" pipe and crack it as if it were sweet crude. They have to retool their equipment to be able to deal with the salt-laden oil. This is an expensive, labor-intensive operation. And, they have to do the same thing to go BACK to regular oil when they're done refining the reserve oil.
The salt is also corrosive, and not good for the equipment.
Refiners as a rule do NOT want to work with that stuff. From what I've heard, there are two companies that have requested it. One is Chavez's Venezuelan company. Think about that. (I don't know who the other is.)
Besides all this, the problem isn't a lack of OIL, it's a lack of REFINERY capacity. We haven't built any new refineries in decades, and the existing ones are running on scotch tape and baling wire.
They can get all the oil they can handle WITHOUT dipping into the saltmines. So why all the talk of releasing the Strategic Reserve oil? Domestic propaganda, not to put too fine a point on it. (IMO pretty much the only valid use for that oil is in a TRULY desperate situation, at which time it would be going to our military, so that our armed forces don't run out of fuel while keeping the enemy away from the gates.)
Stuff that keeps me up at night worrying...
Sorry for the digression. This is stuff I've been worrying about for some time now, but the situation on the south coast has really pegged the nightmare meter with regard to how the country as a whole is going to get by in the near term future.