DISASTERS

Closed US restaurants, damaged homes: Matthew may cost $10B

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Ryan Christian and Delores Miller canoe down West 5th Street after checking on Miller's elderly mother's home in downtown Lumberton after Hurricane Matthew caused downed trees, power outages and massive flooding along the Lumber River, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016 in Lumberton, NC. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP) (The Associated Press)

A lineman works to restore power lines near I-95 after the area was flooded by rain from Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. (AP Photo/Mike Spencer) (The Associated Press)

Sharon Kelsey, front, and her cousin, Pamela Williams, stand on the front port of the Victorian home in Savannah, Ga., where Kelsey lives in a first floor apartment Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. A large tree crashed across the front of the house as Hurricane Matthew raked the Georgia coast over the weekend. Matthew did extensive damage to the signature tree canopy in Savannah. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum) (The Associated Press)

Hurricane Matthew impaired or destroyed more than 1 million structures, forced businesses from Florida to North Carolina to close and put thousands temporarily out of work.

Goldman Sachs estimates the storm probably caused $10 billion in damage overall. Insurance companies will likely be liable for about $4 billion to $6 billion of that total, according to an estimate Saturday by CoreLogic, a real estate data provider.

In many affected areas, small-business owners were still assessing the damage, but figures suggest Matthew's effect on the broader national economy will be minimal.

Though damage estimates are usually revised higher after more comprehensive assessments, the current figures would still make Matthew the 22nd-worst storm since World War II.