By Vincent Morgan, Joseph Jean, Geoffrey Greeves and Matthew Jeweler ( September 21, 2017, 12:20 PM EDT) -- Catastrophes like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma cause not only widespread physical damage but also leave tremendous and long-lasting area-wide economic damages in their wake. Business interruption claims are frequently the most difficult and hotly contested of insurance claims, and this is even more so in the aftermath of large-scale natural disasters. One common dispute is whether the measurement of business interruption should take into account the post-loss area-wide economic conditions. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, losses were exacerbated by the decline of population in the area, which magnified the business interruption losses....