NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — The wide, flat beach that once adorned this resort city of 21,000 on the Atlantic Coast has melted away like a sugar cube in hot tea.
Half the motels, hotels and rental condos have closed because of damage from raging surf, wind and rain, and some may have to be torn down.
"If I owned a hotel or restaurant on the beach, I'd be in tears," said Deborah Boyd, director of the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau. Damage to the local tourism industry in Florida's year of four hurricanes is depressing, she said.
Few -- if any -- of Florida's 17 million residents have been left untouched by this year's great storms, which killed 108 people in the state, and damaged more than one in five homes. A trail of destruction -- from Pensacola to Sanibel Island and the Atlantic shore -- serves as an awesome reminder of the downside of living in a sunny, lush region.
Though the immense whorls of wind and water called Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne are history, their consequences will mark this state for years, and in some cases, emit ripples felt far beyond its borders.
As Floridians rebuild homes and businesses, so much wood, metal and other construction materials may be urgently needed that the cost may skyrocket in other parts of the country.
Americans may find themselves drinking more Brazilian orange juice because of widespread damage to Florida groves. U.S. consumers are paying high prices for gasoline, natural gas and heating oil these days, and part of the blame belongs to one of this season's storms, Ivan, which interrupted energy production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Fewer people may want to live in or visit the Sunshine State because of the chance it could again become Hurricane Alley, which could be an economic boon for other states. Ultimately, the hurricanes may even affect who occupies the White House come January.
Never has a state suffered such vast economic devastation from a natural disaster in such a brief time span as Florida this summer and autumn: homes and bridges destroyed, power and telecommunications systems severed, beachfront properties smashed by storm surges, hotels left without guests, golf courses forsaken by players.
Total losses to private and public property, according to preliminary estimates, could total $40 billion to $60 billion, said David Denslow, director of the Economic Analysis program of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida.
