The impact of hurricanes on local businesses. A special report by Womply Research.
The impact of hurricanes on local businesses. A special report by Womply Research.
- How many businesses permanently shut down due to different hurricanes:
- We identified the number of businesses that stopped transacting entirely during the hurricane, and didn’t transact again within 90 days after (this wouldn’t capture any business that would have re-opened after 90 days.)
- How much was revenue impacted during different hurricanes in our analysis:
- We identified typical seasonal revenue trends nationwide in each industry, and compared the revenue at businesses in our analysis to see if (and by how much) revenue fell above or below the expected seasonal range in the days immediately prior and following the hurricanes in question.
We analyzed the following hurricanes for this report: Hurricane Dorian, Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and Hurricane Michael.
Comparing the impact of different hurricanes on certain types of local businesses.
Hurricanes are one of the most destructive weather events on the planet, and hurricane season appears to only get longer and more severe every year.
Hurricanes cut a wide geographic path of massive damage caused by high winds, flying debris, and heavy flooding. Any one of which on its own can be catastrophic to a local business, let alone combined together in a single event.
Hurricanes are also unique to the events in this analysis simply in the sheer size and scale of the event, as they often sweep through several states, hitting some much harder than others.
With that in mind, we wanted to see how hurricanes affected specific types of local businesses, and how they compared and contrasted.
We’ll start with a “zoomed out” view first, then drill into a more detailed view.
How many businesses permanently closed due to different major hurricanes?
As a major hurricane bears down on a given region, you can expect many, if not most, local businesses to temporarily close their doors. At least until the worst of the storm is past.
The sad reality is that some businesses are so badly damaged (physically, financially, or both) by major hurricanes that they shut down and never open back up again.
In order to determine how many businesses were permanently closed during each hurricane, we identified business that stopped transacting and then didn’t process another transaction within 90 days after the event.
Hurricane Irma had the largest overall impact, with close to 12% of local businesses across all categories in our analysis closing.
28% of food and beverage shops in our analysis (grocery stores, convenience stores, bakeries, etc.) shut down, making it the most heavily affected industry during Hurricane Irma.
Hurricane Harvey was the next most destructive hurricane in our analysis. 9% of businesses permanently closed during the event, with restaurants and quick-serve food and beverage businesses being hit the hardest.
How much was average revenue at local businesses impacted during individual hurricanes?
As we saw in the section above, hurricanes can have a widespread impact on businesses, even those that may be well clear of the storm’s path of destruction. In this section, we’ll examine those businesses that were able to remain open and transacting and see how revenue was impacted during each hurricane.
Our analysis identified when, after the beginning of an individual hurricane, average revenue at open businesses deviated from what was otherwise expected.
The table below shows how much revenue was impacted (negatively or positively) on average throughout the affected period.
An important note: these figures represent average revenue at businesses that were able to remain open and transacting.
As you can see, some hurricanes appeared to be far more destructive to local economies than others. Hurricane Harvey, for example, appeared to have a much longer-lasting negative impact on multiple local business industries than did Hurricane Michael.
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More details by industry type / hurricane
Select an industry in the table below to see more details on the impact of different hurricanes on that industry:
Timeline: how long did it take for local business revenue to return to normal after each hurricane?
Now, let’s take a closer look at how much revenue was impacted during each hurricane in our analysis, and how long it took for revenue to get back to “normal.”
Select an industry
Select a hurricane
Dig deeper: The impact of individual weather events on local businesses:
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