HOUSTON—The water levels are decreasing but in turn, damage levels are rising as the breadth of the storm is exposed. Morningstar Credit Ratings published an alert this week regarding the flooding in Texas. The fear is that 1,529 properties backing CMBS loans could be at risk.

Morningstar believes that these properties with an allocated property balance of $19.4 billion may be at an increased risk because of major flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. These properties, backing 1,277 loans in CMBS, are in the 18 Texas counties that the Federal Emergency Management Agency/FEMA, declared major disaster areas. Most of the properties, with a balance of $16.24 billion, are in Harris County, which suffered catastrophic flooding, according to the New York Times.

Companies and property owners are slowly beginning to report on the extent of the property damage found at commercial structures. It is safe to say that no firm or person has gone through the ordeal and come out unscathed.

“In the midst of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, we are weeks if not months away from a full accounting of its toll on our city, but we already know it is of epic proportions. No individual or business has escaped its impact,” Ben Johanneman, vice president operations McCarthy Building Companies Houston, tells GlobeSt.com. “Every active construction project will require recovery efforts, and they will be balanced with the recovery efforts of active facilities. We make safety a top priority at every job site for our employees, clients and project partners while keeping our focus on delivering exceptional client service. Our commitment to safety and clients never waivers, especially when we are impacted by a natural disaster. At our CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital project in Corpus Christi, we put a volunteer ride-out team in place during the hurricane to help hospital facilities and leadership handle any operational issues that might arise during the storm. Currently we are determining how best to re-mobilize our projects and assist our clients and each other when it becomes safe to do so, but we take comfort knowing we have the support of all of our McCarthy partners across the country.”

Instant Insights /

Flooding Creates Uncertainty for Many Properties

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