Advisors had a digital leg up in weathering one of the worst storms in modern history.

Over the past five days, Hurricane Harvey has caused at least 30 deaths, billions of dollars of damage and disruptions to business and industry in the Gulf Coast region.

But advisors in Harvey’s path are displaying resilience, courage and generosity as the true extent of the destruction becomes clear.

“The situation here is fluid [in many ways] and still developing,” says Larry Maddox, president and founder of Houston-based Horizon Advisors. “Runoff from the unprecedented rains is still swelling our local rivers and bayous, and I’m not sure that anyone in the city has breathed a sigh of relief just yet."

Harvey, now a tropical storm, first made landfall Friday as a major hurricane near the city of Rockport, Tex., bringing winds of more than 130 miles per hour, significant storm surge flooding and heavy rains. As the storm stalled near the Houston metropolitan area, it dropped up to 50 inches of rain on some locations, causing catastrophic flooding and at least 30 fatalities, according to the latest reports.

Many advisors in areas affected by the storm have found themselves unable to reach their offices.

In many cases advisors themselves have been displaced, says Matt Hall, co-founder and president of Hill Investment Group, an advisory firm headquartered in St. Louis with offices in Houston.

One of Hall’s colleagues, originally evacuated from Houston, found herself the subject of a rescue as heavy rains flooded the area she had taken shelter in.

“She had already moved an hour west from Houston in a town that should, theoretically, have been very safe,” says Hall. “We received a message on our internal chat application that she had been boated out of that location.”

With the surge and rain flooding caused by Harvey, today’s technologically driven practices are both a blessing and a curse, advisors say. The technology is wonderful for staying in touch with clients and staying informed, they say, but protecting equipment from the storm is a major undertaking.

At Sather Financial Group, an advisory practice located in Victoria, Tex., about 60 miles north of where the storm made landfall, electronics in the office was either relocated or covered with plastic. Automated digital processes meant that clients’ access to their money was not interrupted.

The fact that so much technology is web-based also helped practices to cope with the storm.

At Houston-based Financial Synergies, financial advisor Bryan Zschiesche has been able to keep operations going throughout the storm due to technology and careful planning.

“We continue to operate at nearly 100 percent capacity since all our trading and account management systems are web-based,” says Zschiesche. “As part of our disaster recover plan, our staff members are staying in regular communication via group text messages, and we’ve experienced no interruption in receiving emails and voicemails from our clients.”

Zschiesche says social media has enabled his firm to hear from clients and experience the storm’s impacts upon them via photos and videos.

Dave Sather, Sather Financial Group’s president, said that he and his half-dozen office mates met Friday morning to make plans and board up the office. 

“We were lucky. I came back to the office Sunday and we had lost one tree, but the office survived,” he says. “We sent an email to clients on Friday giving them our cell phone numbers and email addresses and asking what they might need. Most clients just wished us well.”

Sather expected to be back in the offices by Tuesday.

Hall says that Hill Investment Group’s Houston-area clients are reporting a mixture of experiences. Many remain in their homes with electricity and no flooding. Others have had to leave the area. Hall has had his firm reach out to affected clients to see if the firm can be of assistance.

At Horizon Advisors, several Houston-area clients have had their homes flooded, and Owen Murray, the firm’s director of investments, moved into a hotel after his home was included within a mandatory evacuation area. But Maddox says that there have not been any additional client calls.

“People are dealing with losing their homes and possessions. Many are temporarily living with friends and family,” says Maddox. “I don’t think we’re over the shock of this event, and in many cases, I just don’t know what will happen next.”

Some clients are calling firms concerned about the well-being of their advisors. Zschiesche says that Financial Synergies attempted to assuage client concerns with pre-emptive calls informing them that the firm would operate as normal.

“Most of the replies we’ve received expressed concern, encouragement and well wishes,” says Zschiesche. “We have worked diligently to create a reputation for lightening-quick response and follow-through, and any client requests we have received since the storm began have been handled same day.“

Most of the clients Hall has heard from have been responding to Hill Investment Group’s outreach efforts.

“Most are thanking us for reaching out,” says Hall. “Many of our clients have left and are in safe spaces, but a few are still there and are mostly affected in a sense because they cannot travel normally and are blocked off from places they would normally go by the flooding.”

In some cases, Harvey’s damage will alter or scuttle retirement plans, acknowledges Hall, but most advisory clients are resilient.

“Like any unexpected challenge, people find ways to be resilient and bounce back,” says Hall. “Responding is a matter of prioritizing the things that matter the most. If a client suddenly finds themselves without a residence, we might end up talking about that first and the normal business second. In our firm, we talk about resilience and what creates it so we’re not overwhelmed and so we don’t feel completely out of control.”

Sather is advising clients affected by the storm to get an early start on their insurance claims.

“We told clients to contact their insurance companies immediately and start the claims process,” Sather says. “It’s one of those situations where you just do the best you can and make sure everyone is safe. The money aspect of it will work itself out. Safety and security are the important things.”

In addition to the property damage, Harvey also leaves behind likely economic and policy impacts. Ameriprise Financial expects that the storm will have a negative impact on national economic data due to its ferocity, the population density of the affected areas, the presence of the oil and gas industry in the region and the fact that most of the damage was caused by flooding, which in many cases will be uninsured.

Ameriprise predicts that higher gas prices will cause a decline in consumer purchasing power, and that the overall economic impact from the storm may be enough to delay monetary tightening by developed market central banks.

In the wake of the storm, advisors exploring opportunities for service and philanthropy, as are many clients.

“There are issues at work here far greater and more important than financial advice, people are trying to arrange for the survival of themselves, their children, their pets, they’re struggling to find shelter and food,” says Hall. “For a lot of people in Houston, just getting out of town was complicated. It’s been difficult to watch and not really be able to help yet, but we’re looking to see if there’s anything we can do for our clients, and we’re donating money to several organizations trying to do work in the affected areas.”

Likewise, Maddox has added prompts to give and donate to his e-mail signatures.

In the aftermath of a major disaster like Harvey, fraudulent charity and service organizations take advantage of many philanthropically minded individuals, notes Hall.

“One of the best ways to protect against fraud is to have a personal connection to the charitable organization you’re working with,” says Hall. “These situations are ripe with that kind of bad behavior.”

It may take years to discover the true extent of Harvey's destruction, yet in the long run, Texas will recover, says Hall.

“Texas is tough-minded and fiercely independent,” says Hall. “When mother nature shows us her worst side, it tends to bring out the best in people.”