The storm killed around 30 people on the East Coast, not only damaging homes and businesses, but also heavily affecting the region economically, according to a report obtained by Press TV.
"Given the physical damage to homes, businesses and other structures and automobiles, plus the high costs incurred due to business interruption, it is expected that this will end up being a multi-billion-dollar economic cost," reinsurance company Aon Benfield announced in a note obtained by the media outlet on Monday.
The insurance company offered that a much smaller storm system in 1996 caused an estimated $4.6 billion loss in current dollars.
The storm killed people in Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Maryland, New York and Virginia, in car accidents and heart attacks while shoveling snow on Saturday. Another two died of hypothermia in Virginia, and one from carbon monoxide poisoning in Pennsylvania.
The thousand-mile weather front affected a dozen states over the weekend, and is now on record as one of the worst storms to hit the region in over a century. The extreme weather shut down the federal government, dumping 22 inches of snow on DC. New York City was all but shut down, with a ban on driving, as 26.8 inches were recorded, the second-highest accumulation in the city since record-keeping began in 1869.
