Before Hurricane Helene landed, the projected damage was a few billion dollars. After the storm, Moody's estimate was $425.9 billion. Now Hurricane Milton is bearing down on Florida's west coast. In short, the potential risk natural disasters pose to structures is massive and growing.

There are ways of addressing this in an unexpected future, like insurance, continuity planning, and improved resiliency. All of these and more can benefit from technology.

Start with planning and documentation. Any business, including one in commercial real estate, needs to plan what it will do given different scenarios. Power loss, flooding or drought, wind damage, earthquake, fire, riots — there are so many things that can go wrong. A smart business considers the worst-case scenarios and then knows the potential of it happening. Plans should be documented, and this is where technology first comes into play.