Hurricanes Harvey & Irma Spin A Web Of Business Interruption Claim Issues

The 2017 Hurricane Season will be long remembered. Hurricane Harvey will likely be deemed the most destructive and expensive natural disaster to impact the continental United States. Harvey made initial landfall on August 25, 2017, near Port Aransas, Texas, and continued to batter Texas for days thereafter. Harvey struck near Houston, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States with nearly 6.6 million people and dumped approximately 52 inches of rain over parts of Southeast Texas, an area equivalent in size to the State of New Jersey. It is estimated losses will total between $160 and $200 billion.

Then, while authorities were still addressing the impact of Harvey, Hurricane Irma roared through the Caribbean Basin causing widespread destruction before making landfall in the Florida Keys on September 10, 2017, as a Category 4 storm. Irma then pushed its way up the entire length of Florida before being downgraded to a tropical storm. As of September 11,