National supply chains largely avoided the most feared impacts of Hurricane Ian, with disruptions expected to be far less than the extent of previous disasters.
Ian devastated southwest Florida, with power outages, flooding and the temporary shutdown of transportation infrastructure all expected to lead to delays and higher costs for businesses. Still, the impact of the hurricane won’t reverberate through supply chains to the same degree as the Texas deep freeze last year, which took 80% of U.S. basic organic chemicals capacity offline.
“Given the geographies involved with Hurricane Ian, we’re not looking at anything nearly of similar magnitude here,” said Jason Miller, associate professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.
So far, the storm has significantly impacted Florida’s citrus producers but otherwise appears to have dealt only glancing blows to other major industries and interstate transportation. Risk modeler Karen Clark & Company estimates overall economic damage to top $100 billion, the largest hurricane loss in Florida history.
