Inventory loss “could have been a lot worse,” said Johanna Dominguez of Put a Plant on It. But merchants suffered as shoppers stayed home.

Federal spending by the two main agencies that manage wildfires has doubled in the last decade, Pew found. States are spending more too.

Lee County in Southwest Florida, where the storm made landfall, still faces monumental challenges housing people displaced by the storm.

Damage along Florida’s southwest coast includes museums and theaters that plan to rebuild.

The storm could cause more than $30 billion in property losses at a time when insurance companies in the state are losing money.

A direct hit would have been bad news for a world already struggling without enough fertilizer.

Fires are unpredictable. They can spark anywhere, grow to any size and move in any direction, says Caroline Mimbs Nyce of The Atlantic.

“You can pay kind of a lot to get us where we need to be on the front end of a disaster…or you could pay twice or three times as much to rebuild and recover,” said Mark Ghilarducci, Director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

More extreme weather means more damage to homes and property — a challenge for insurers, as well as owners.

There are more disasters than Congress budgets for. And the federal fiscal year coincides with peak hurricane and wildfire season.