The total economic damage caused by Hurricane Irene, including losses in property and business activities, is pretty small, experts from Chicago's universities said in recent interviews.

"The benchmark analysis is something like 14 billion (U.S. dollars) of property damage and loss of economic activities," said Mark Witte, director of Undergraduate Studies in Economics with Northwestern University, in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Friday.

Hurricane Irene pummeled a wide area of the U.S. East Coast beginning on Aug. 27 and cut a vast swathe of destruction of landscapes and properties on its path. More than 40 people were reportedly killed in the disaster.

Ai Ning, an assistant professor with University of Illinois at Chicago, put the estimate at seven billion dollars. "But compared to 14-trillion-dollar GDP in the U.S., it's really not a significant (impact)," Ai said in an interview.

"I would argue that, whenever we measure the economic impact, it is typically, if not always, a conservative estimate," Ai added. "Most time people will measure the tangible impacts, but not the intangible impacts. For example, for some regions, (which) may not on the east coast at all, but they may be affected in terms of tourism."

Northwestern University's Witte said that everything would be back to normal in two years, since "it wasn't as bad as it could have been." He attributed the relatively minor damage to accurate weather forecasts and swift emergency responses.

Witte's view was echoed by his colleague, Karen Smilowitz, an associate professor of Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences. Karen said the accuracy of weather forecasting model has improved significantly in recent years. "It (the accuracy) was 50 percent 15 years ago."

Karen added that an early declaration of a state of emergency among the affected states allows them to use resources through FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and gain access to funds to repair infrastructure and help those who were left without power and food and might lose jobs as a result of disasters.

Witte also agreed that rehabilitation activities would gave a boost to the U.S. economy to some extent. "The housing sector will employ a lot of plummers, roofers and groups like that. Once those get to work, that will raise income and they will spend more."