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54 54 C O V E R S T O R Y / J O E Y P I Z Z O L A T O e housing market is no stranger to disaster—especially Hurricanes. In the last two decades, Hurricanes Sandy, Katrina, Rita, Andrew, and Wilma have all had disastrous effects on the housing market, and more importantly, on homeowners. But 2017 brought to light new challenges facing the industry: Hurricane Harvey, a record-breaking storm, and Hurricane Irma that followed barely a week later on the coat-tails of its predecessor, highlighted new challenges that have been otherwise overlooked. LAND FALL It was no surprise that Hurricane Harvey was going to have massive, substantial effects on the city of Houston as it creeped across the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas. But, even with predictive models, the ensuing fallout was unprecedented, and even under the clear- minded eye of hindsight, there was no way to truly predict the aftermath of the storm. Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017, and was the first Category 4 hurricane to directly strike the continental United States since Hurricane Ike in 2008, with sustained winds averaging 145 miles per hour. And while most hurricanes continue to move inland, losing force and strength without the support of the warmer waters of the ocean, Harvey lingered over southeast Texas, retreating to the sea and gathering strength, and dumping nearly 50 inches of rain over the course of nine days, which is just above the annual rainfall average for the region—49.76 inches—as recorded by Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. According to Black Knight Financial Services, there was an estimated 1,180,000 mortgaged properties in areas designated disasters zones by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with only 20 percent of those homes possessing vital flood insurance. Moody Analytics estimated damages between $51 and $75 billion. And then, not a week later, Hurricane Irma emerged in the Atlantic basin, a Category 5 hurricane, and the strongest ever recorded by the National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration, with sustained winds at 185 miles per hour, second only to Hurricane Allen in 1980, which recorded 190 mph winds. Further, the storm's sheer size was awe-inspiring: at over 400 miles wide it stood double the width of the Florida CHARTING THE PATH FORWARD