2 Million Dollars

[Are_grits_groceries]

That is the cost to the City of Florence, SC alone to clean up the debris from Hurricane Matthew.

If you drive down many streets, you see piles of huge logs in front of many houses. They look like forts. Every street seems to have varying sizes of piles of leaves and logs in front of a lot of places.
The city has been working constantly since the hurricane to clean this up. They have been trying to do this efficiently without busting the bank.

I have read and heard a lot about this and they seem to be doing a good job. It is a Herculean task.
http://www.scnow.com/news/local/article_cc72e0fa-bf29-11e6-bbe8-abf18162d18b.html

[lordsummerisle]

1. And Matthew was a minimal hurricane

image if it had been a major Cat3 or 4...

[malaise]

2. Huh?

Matthew was a Cat5 storm at one point. It hit Haiti as Cat4, Cuba as Cat4 and the Bahamas as Cat4

It was a major hurricane by any measure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Matthew

[lordsummerisle]

3. Yes, of course

I didn't add that by the time it hit the Grand Strand of South Carolina it had been downgraded to a minimal Cat1.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/10/08/hurricane-matthew-surge-flooding-warning-saturday/91782100/

[malaise]

4. That flooding was way more than the hurricane Category

Those Atlantic waves were whipped up for days when it was at its peak

[lordsummerisle]

5. The experts acknowledge that the hurricane category system

is imperfect, it only refers to wind speeds and not storm surge, which actually does more damage. There have been storm surges from tropical storms that have devastated areas...
There has been talk for years of a new system that takes storm surge into account but I guess it's not ready for prime time yet.

[malaise]

6. True but it's improving

They'll get there