# How much did the Oklahoma city bombing and 9/11 cost? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-and-9-11-cost/633168 "2012-08-30T17:58:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-and-9-11-cost/633168/1 "2012-08-30T17:58:55Z")
By “cost” I mean: 1. What it cost the perpetrators to perform those actions. What and how much resources did they employ in performing those attacks? 2. The immediate cost to the target. I do not mean to ask about the number of casualties or the cost of political choices which were made as a result (e.g.: invading countries, increasing the size of the military). Were there similar attacks which resulted in very high investment/damage ratios? I have a vague memory of the IRA being fond of urban renewal in English downtown areas. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-and-9-11-cost/633168/2 "2012-08-30T18:03:53Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > By “cost” I mean: > Were there similar attacks which resulted in very high investment/damage ratios? I have a vague memory of the IRA being fond of urban renewal in English downtown areas. Well it’s not like the 911 hijackers went out and bought planes . . . didn’t cost much to send 12 guys over here to go to flight school and hang out compared to the value of the three targets they hit. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-and-9-11-cost/633168/3 "2012-08-30T19:10:15Z")
The cost for al Qaeda to execute the 911 operation is estimated to be just a half a million by this [report](http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Exec.htm). The two world trade center towers alone were worth around $5 billion by most of the estimates I am seeing. And then you have the pentagon; which isn’t cheap either. I’m thinking they got more dollar for dollar than the Oklahoma City bombing but you can estimate these thinks out the roof. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-and-9-11-cost/633168/4 "2012-08-30T19:13:50Z")
I assume you just want the cost of the stuff destroyed, and not the cost of things like rescue efforts, shutting down part of Manhatten for a period of time, clearing out the rubble, etc. The WTC insurance payout was about 4.5 billion. But that’s just to the developer. I think you’d need the cost of the stuff that the various offices had in them. There was also a tube-station underneath that was destroyed, whose cost would also need to be added. A 767 looks to be about 150 million, so add 600 million for the planes. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-and-9-11-cost/633168/5 "2012-08-30T20:02:29Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > A 767 looks to be about 150 million, so add 600 million for the planes. Does anybody know the insurance payoff to the airlines? I’ve been Googling it, but I can’t find a combination of keywords that brings it up. (Or maybe it was never published.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-did-the-oklahoma-city-bombing-and-9-11-cost/633168/6 "2012-08-30T21:39:42Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > There was also a tube-station underneath that was destroyed, whose cost would also need to be added. For the PATH\* station you mentioned, add $323 million for the temporary station now in use, and some portion of the $3.44 billion estimated for the replacement station. [Cite.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_(PATH_station)) I say “some portion” because the Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transit Authority are not merely building a replacement station for the old PATH/subway station(s) at the WTC site but taking the opportunity to build a hub station grander than the cobbled-together pre-9/11 station(s). \*PATH=Port Authority Trans-Hudson; as the name implies, (1) a subway connecting New Jersey to New York under the Hudson River, (2) owned and operated by the Port Authority of NY & NJ rather than the MTA, which runs the regular NYC subways.