Will Hurr. Frances ensure the jobs market will get better?

[TexasSissy]

It occurs to me that what with all the thousands (millions?) of people who will be needed to help reconstruct Florida after the two recent hurricanes, the job market in Florida will most definitely improve, and the numbers for the country will improve. House construction, power workers, retail sales for home improvement products, etc. The only industry area that will be hurt is the insurance industry?

Could it be the hurricanes will benefit the Bushes? Could it be that Florida, of all states, will be critical in helping to get Bush get elected?

Could it be that the Christian Right probably thinks that the hurricans in Florida were God ordained for this very purpose? I bet so.

[prodigal_green]

1. Probably not

there is already a shortage of construction materials. A friend is trying to build a place in Florida (not rebuild) and apparently most of the concrete being produced is going to China.

[zbdent]

2. If Florida went decisively for Gore in 2000 (and still Bush had been

installed), do you really think that he'd swoop down (again, after the danger has passed, but no President would actually go down into a hurricane area while the hurricane is still there) and let fly with the FEMA $$$s?

Seems that, a few years back, Repukes were talking about the stupidity of people who don't get flood insurance even though they build homes close to rivers . . .

[TexasSissy]

3. Whether or not they have flood insurance doesn't matter. The

pickup in building activity will exist, no matter who pays for it.

Re flood insurance....I'm from Louisiana, a state that has a lot of floods. Flood ins. is unavailable in many areas. Ins. cos. won't insure against what is certain to happen. Same thing for "acts of God," like hurricanes.

I think the jobs market in Florida WILL pick up because of the hurricanes. I've seen it before.

When I tried to get my house re-roofed a year or two ago, I had trouble finding a roofer. Seems a lot of our roofers had left the state to go re-roof in a state that had just been hit by tornadoes or hurricanes, I forget which. I heard on the news that thousands of power workers were being flown into Florida (2M people there are w/o power). Etc., etc.

[Elginoid]

4. actually, it may do the opposite-

after Charlie went thru, there were a lot of people whose places of employment no longer existed. It may actually cause a spike in unemployment numbers, as far as first-time applicants is concerned.