This story is part of The Disaster Economy , a Grist series exploring the often chaotic, lucrative world of disaster response and recovery. It is published with support from the CO2 Foundation.

Extreme weather disasters — made larger, longer, and more intense by climate change — are taking an heavier toll on the possession that many Americans consider to be their most important asset: the home.

A slew of big events, from deadly wildfires in California and Oklahoma to tornadoes in Missouri and Kentucky to floods in Texas, have already destroyed some 63,000 residential buildings and other structures so far this year and caused more than $20 billion in direct damage. That’s in addition to an unending parade of smaller extreme weather events.

These compounding extremes ar

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