U.S. cautious as Hurricane Irma heads towards Florida

The hurricane season is here.

United States’ government and the people of Florida are preparing for yet another hurricane Irma, which according to forecasts have been upgraded to stage 4 with stage 5 being the strongest. It is currently approaching the Caribbean as of Monday and could make a landfall in Florida later this week.  According to United States’ National Hurricane Center, the wind speed is likely to hit 130-156 miles an hour and could cause yet another catastrophic damage in the United States, within just weeks of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey that caused all port closures in the Gulf Coast and unprecedented flooding in Texas and Louisiana. Though Harvey is currently downgraded to tropical storm, it was a stage 3 Hurricane when it made landfall in Texas, leading refinery outage in the United States in the tune of 4.9 million barrels per day. The capacity is yet to recover completely, while authorities say that the damage could run as high as $120 billion and might take years to recover completely.

While Harvey caused havoc for the U.S. oil and gas industry, Irma is not likely to cause such damage as Florida is not home to major refineries. Nevertheless, the economic implication could be high for two back to back hurricanes. Reports suggest that many places in Florida are already running low on water and food supplies as people in the area continue to build up supplies to prepare for Irma.