Winter Storm to Cost Millions

Winter storms can cost local communities, states and even the nation hundreds of millions of dollars. The snow must be removed, salt and sand must be spread, employees get paid overtime, damage must be repaired and a host of other issues arise. There are also extreme costs to businesses that must shut down and cancel services because of the weather. The storm that hit much of the nation tonight is no different. If anything, it's worse.

According to Fox News tonight's winter storm spread across more than 2,000 miles of the United States leaving at least a third of the nation affected. Thousands of flights have been canceled and tens of thousands of businesses closed early. These lost wages and lost sales will have a massive impact on the local economies. The situation does not look to get any better tomorrow as many places have already closed, and those open will suffer from a lack of customers. Few people will venture out shopping unless they have no other choice.

In Missouri the cost of dealing with this storm took a major jump when the state was declared as being in a state of emergency causing the Missouri National Guard to be activated. 600 citizen-soldiers will be working as long as necessary to get the state up and running again. This could take a while considering the most major road in the state has been completely shut down due to snow drifts.

What will the final total of all costs be? The answers won't be easy to find. The local governments will release budget numbers stating how much the storm cost in the form of labor and supplies. That number by itself is large. In a recent storm in South Carolina the state spent almost 7 million dollars in road work alone.

The impact on business profits and personal finances will be harder to track. A December blizzard in the northeast which caused less cancelled flights than this current round of storms was said to cost the airlines 150 million dollars. Add on to this the tens of thousands of closed shops and restaurants plus those who could not go into work and will receive less pay as a result and you have a major economical hit. This all coming on the heels of a similar storm system that hit just weeks ago.

For a country struggling to come out of a recession this all could be tuff to swallow.