Superstorm Sandy Could Cost The US $45bn

Superstorm Sandy, which ripped through the east coast of the US, could cost around $45bn (£27.9bn), according to the latest estimate.

The figure, from professional services firm PwC, allows for a rise in original estimations as the full scale of damage becomes clear.

"There is clearly the potential for initial estimates to rise as we saw with Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Irene which underestimated the scale and level of damage caused," Mohammad Khan, insurance partner, PwC said.

An earlier estimate by forecasting company IHS Global Insight said the storm would cause about $20bn (£12.4bn) in damage and between $10bn (£ 6.2bn) and $30bn (£18.6bn) in lost business.

While risk consultants AIR Worldwide estimated losses up to $15bn (£9.3bn).

Mr Khan added that interruptions to business will make up a significant part of the overall losses - with Hurricane Katrina these claims made up approximately 20% of the overall insurance claims.

Damage on the New Jersey coastline

"Whether this is applicable to Sandy depends on the swiftness of recovery of the subway and other transports links which would be a good proxy for the recovery of New York in general," he said.

Businesses have been hit by a host of problems caused by the storm, including the flooding of the New York subway system which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said it could be four or five days before the subway is running again.

The city's financial district was also flooded by torrents of rainwater - leading to the closure of Wall Street on both Monday and Tuesday.

They reopened on Wednesday, with mayor Bloomberg ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

A road in North Carolina buckles following the storm

Dr Jeffrey Gedmin, from the Legatum Institute think-tank in London, told Sky News the problem with the recovery was that the storm had hit one of America's most populous and economically active regions.

"We're talking about 60 million people, nearly the population of the UK," he said.

"Post-Sandy projections have US economic output now reduced by at least $25bn for the last quarter of 2012.

"For an economy that has been creeping along with two per cent growth, that's troubling.

"America has fiscal housekeeping to do. Sandy has just made the job harder."

At the height of the storm, more than 8 million homes and businesses lost electricity - nearly a quarter of which were in New York.

Power company Consolidated Edison said it would be four days before its customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn would have power again, and it could take a week to restore outages in other New York districts.

But there was some good news from the region's airports - John F. Kennedy International in New York and Newark Liberty International said they planned to reopen with limited service on Wednesday.

Almost 19,000 flights have been cancelled since Sunday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.com, and New York's LaGuardia Airport is still flooded and remained closed.

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