Sandy has come and gone, but has made sure its short visit would be remembered for a long time. The hurricane (or whatever it evolved into) wreaked havoc on the east coast, leaving destruction and a deadly trail in its wake. After the initial shock and the first days focused on the overall devastation and the rising death toll, the focus has now shifted to the needs of people who have been hit and the impact on businesses. While many in the U.S. might think they are too far away or their businesses too far removed to be affected in any way by the storm, analysts believe the impact of the slowdown of economic activity in the 17th economy in the world (New York City) is bound to affect the nation at large in various and often unforeseen ways.
One business that has seen the impact right away was the entertainment industry. As the storm made it to shore and many TV stations (network-owned or affiliates) opted out of their regular programming and turned to local coverage of the storm, some networks chose not to air original episodes and had reruns instead. Some of those choices proceeded from the fact that shows that film in New York had their production halted because of the difficulties of working in the aftermath of Sandy, but also because the authorities revoked all film permits for Monday and Tuesday. Among such shows was Noah, which prompted actress Emma Watson's tweet, “I take it that the irony of a massive storm holding up the production of ‘Noah’ is not lost.”
While disaster specialists are now crunching the numbers for hurricane Sandy, many seem to believe there is no precedent of a similar disaster having so much impact on the entertainment industry. According to Deadline Hollywood, "movies and TV shows hit by a weather disaster often lose more from carrying costs tied to shooting delays than from property damage," which is a fancy way of saying that the sooner production can resume, the lesser the impact will be.
