There may not be a nastierrivalry in all of college sports than between the University ofAlabama and Auburn University. The two sides love to hate eachother, yet when tragedy strikes, as it did in April, an entirestate becomes one and chants of "Roll Tide" or "War Eagles" are putaside—at least until the fall—so all Alabamans can help oneanother.

April 27 was the day a tornado roared through the northern partof Alabama, claiming 243 lives and causing over $2 billion ininsured loss. The daytime storm allowed television cameras tocapture the storm's fury for the entire state to view.

"We were almost eyewitnesses, says Eileen Senn, vice presidentof claims operations, Alfa Insurance, which is based in Montgomery."We watched tornados live on TV ripping through Tuscaloosa andBirmingham. Some of our managers watching on TV knew they hademployees in the area and some had college-age students in thebasement of the buildings as we watched the storms form. That was amonumental day for the state of Alabama."

Alfa is the second biggest writer of homeowners insurance inAlabama. So after the initial shock of witnessing the devastationon television, the disaster plans the carrier had alreadyformulated kicked in, according to Senn.

"Being so close to the Gulf Coast, we are always doing tests andpreparing for catastrophes with our mind more on hurricanes," shesays. "This was like a hurricane, but it was wider spread thananything we've ever had before."

Four years ago, nine people died in a tornado that struckEnterprise, Ala., but Senn recalls that storm encompassed a muchsmaller area than the one that roared through northern Alabama.

"This was different because it was across the entire state," shesaid. "But weather events are always in the back of our minds."

As part of its emergency response preparation, Alfa purchasedtwo mobile response units five years ago, explains Senn.

"From the outside it looks like an RV, which is really what itis," she says.

On the inside, though, each unit is a self-contained office witha generator, satellite dish, and wireless connectivity. The unitscan handle up to nine work stations and contain scanners, printers,and laptops—everything Alfa needed to set up an emergencyoffice.

Senn reports Alfa has offices in each of Alabama's 67 counties,so personnel were already available once the storm ended. But mostof the affected areas were without power, crippling efforts toreopen offices in the affected areas.

Alfa employs its own adjusters—a staff of 125—according to Senn,and each of them has all the necessary tools in their cars,including laptops, cellphones, digital cameras, andprinters. 

"Early on, we sent most of our adjusters tothe storm area and then we rotated some in and out. But we threwall our resources at the response on the very first day," saysSenn.

One break that went Alfa's way in response to the storm was thatcellular phone service through Alfa's carrier, Verizon, did notsuffer a major interruption.

Alfa has the ability to connect to satellites from the mobileunits, but that is used as a last resort, according to Senn.

"Some of our [technology] doesn't work as well with thesatellite," says Senn. "We are in the middle of buying a condensersystem so we can run [systems] off the satellite if we have to. Theinitial testing has been good enough to buy the devices to enhanceour mobile units. We needed cell phone towers [for this storm]. Wewere lucky that even though a lot of cell towers were down, we werestill able to get connectivity."

In 2010, Alfa purchased the ImageRight solution from Vertaforeas its enterprise content management and workflow system for theclaims operation, pointed out Senn. She believes the paperlessapproach is the reason Alfa was able to push forward 22,000 claimsrelated to this single storm.

From the time the claim is reported, all the information isentered into the ImageRight system. Once the claim is created, theadjuster immediately gets an email. A folder with FNOL and otherinformation is programmed in ImageRight so the claim file is therewith the information needed and Alfa's claims personnel can get towork.

"The best thing about ImageRight is if someone calls and asksabout the claim we can put a note in the file and the person in thefield sees it immediately whether they are in the bus or their caror in the hotel at night," says Senn.

Adjusters can make notes in the file, financial payments, importestimates and everything is immediately viewable by anyone withaccess to the software. Prior to ImageRight, if someone called Alfawith a question the customer service rep would take a message andthen go and find the file.

"This way, anyone with access can look at the file to knowwhat's going on and make additional comments," she says. "It'sgiven us the ability to have real-time access to the information aswe need it. It really has been tremendous for our customerservice."

The April tornado was the big test.

"We've used it for smaller incidents, but thiswas by far the largest," says Senn. "We've had [the solution] longenough that everyone was familiar with it and trained. The timingcame at a good time as far as our preparation. We had done a lot oftesting and training. We were ready."

One year ago, virtually everything Alfa did involved paper. Astorm such as April's would have meant ferrying things to the homeoffice for processing.

"We still would have had the mobile units, but everything wouldhave been paper based—writing out code sheets and notes andassembling files," says Senn. "We did have a back-office imagingsystem and imaged files when they closed, but this way we've gonefrom after the fact when the claim is closed to where we start atthe beginning and it's a living, breathing file that we can add toand work with. We were sort of paperless, but it was after thefact."

Having the mobile units gave Alfa a jump on the mammoth numberof claims.

"The mobile units enabled us to get close to the areas where weneeded to see people," says Senn. "In some cases we didn't have thebroadband because lines were down. As those areas came online wewere able to go back to work in our physical facilities. The mobileunits gave us the ability to go where we were needed. As the powercame on and things were stabilized in one area, we were able todrive somewhere else."

When a crisis hits, Senn says it is "all hands on deck" to dealwith the aftermath. People from different departments in thecompany pitched in to get the work done and restore some sanity tothe affected policyholders.

"Our marketing team was phenomenal in what they did to help us,"says Senn. "They used Facebook and other social media to provideinformation. They ran radio and TV ads giving the 800 number tocall."

Almost all of the initial claims have been taken care of, but itwill be several months before they will all be closed as people arein the process of deciding whether they will rebuild, explainsSenn.

Just in time for the 2011 college football season.