If the storm’s heavy rains continue, Leonard predicted some crops could be at risk. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates the combined size of North and South Carolina was around $730 billion in 2016, which JPMorgan said on Friday was a sliver of America’s entire gross domestic product.
In a note on Friday, S&P Global Ratings said it would monitor “more than 50 local governments within North and South Carolina and we will likely expand the scope of our review to include Georgia, given the recent track of the storm.
The federal government’s role in providing disaster assistance will be “a key component to stabilizing communities after a natural disaster, especially for areas with little-to-no support from private insurance,” the ratings agency added.
Meanwhile, the Carolinas’ economy has a wide swath of industries that may be impacted by Florence.”They actually have a diverse crop economy down there. You have everything from corn to soybeans to tobacco to cotton,” Leonard told CNBC. Heading into the harvest season, he stated he’s particularly worried about cotton.
Agriculture-related business is worth $76 billion alone to North Carolina, according to North Carolina State University data. “Heavy rain, standing water and flooding is the last thing they need,” Leonard said. “We could have real serious damage to the cotton crop in both North and South Carolina.”
September represents the peak of hurricane season, and Leonard suggested the worst may not be over yet. “The last couple of weeks, true-to-form right during that peak climatological time for hurricanes, boom we had three, four develop just like that,” he said.
Helene and Isaac are two tropical storms currently lingering in the Atlantic, while Subtropical Storm Joyce is floating around, too.
Leonard told CNBC that storms could continue to develop “in the next few weeks” but may taper off into October and November. “We have a lot of high heat potential out in the Atlantic right now, so we’ll probably have several more storm systems,” he said.
“But as we get later in the fall, I think we’re going to taper it off rather quickly…fingers crossed.” However, he doesn’t see a large mega-storm similar to Florence gaining strength. “This is really the peak, as soon as we get over the hump, things will start to taper down over the next one to two months,” Leonard predicted.
On the Money airs on CNBC Saturdays at 5:30 am ET, or check listings for air times in local markets.
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