An aerial view of Mexico Beach in Panama City, Florida,provides insight on what the beach looked like before and after itwas hit by Hurricane Michael last month. (Photo: AirbusAerial)

As we enter the last month of the 2018 hurricane season, it'ssafe to say the U.S. has seen its fair share of natural disasters.Hurricane Florence's damage costs are estimated to exceed $50 billion, and, most recently, HurricaneMichael was recorded as the third most intense continental U.S. landfall onrecord as a Category 4 hurricane.

As the extent of catastrophe damage continues to growexponentially, insurers are turning to technology to help thembetter evaluate, understand and respond to natural disasters. Onesuch technology solution at the heart of today's disaster responseefforts is aerial data.

Look to the sky

Imagery from drones, manned aircraft and satellites isbecoming increasingly valuable to claims adjusters as they facehazardous and often unknown conditions during the claims process.In fact, Novarica estimated that nearly 20% of P&C carriers arepursuing aerial imaging solutions.

Why the focus on imaging solutions? Satellites can gatherimportant data both before and after disasters occur to helpinsurers compare and triage total loss damage. Radar satellites cansee through clouds and monitor flooding as it happens. Likewise,manned aircraft and drones can be deployed to provide more detailedimages of areas that require deeper analysis.

This data not only helps insurers prepare for disaster recovery,but also helps protect claims adjusters on the ground. By knowingthe extent of the damage before sending adjusters on-site, insurerscan avoid hazardous conditions, inaccessible areas and dangerousbuilding infrastructure.

Analyze the situation on the ground

Aerial data solutions can also bring advanced analyticalcapabilities to claims processes, allowing insurers to easilyassess the extent of flood waters, utilize damage heat maps, andmatch their intersection with policies in effect.

When relying on machine learning algorithms to drive analytics,insurers can easily determine and classify damage, allowing them tosend adjusters to the hardest hit areas first. It also allows themto handle obvious total loss claims in a way that saves money andimproves customer service.

In fact, imagery and analytics are often detailed enoughthat adjusters can fully process claims without even putting bootson the ground. After Hurricane Michael, some adjusters were able touse aerial data and analytics to process claims before customerseven knew their homes had been destroyed.

Aerial in action

In the midst of Hurricane Michael recovery efforts, one aerialdata solution provider was able to use imagery to expedite claims responseprocesses and mitigate adjuster risks. The company was able togather over 4,800 square kilometers of high-resolution satelliteimagery of the entire impacted Florida coastline. Utilizingarchived satellite and manned data, the company provided customerswith imagery of the whole area, showing current and pre-eventbaselines, along with the analysis required to make necessaryassessments.

Even going beyond aerial data, insurers can bring in theirpolicy data, third-party property attribute information, localparcel information and more to fuse with the imagery and analyticsto get holistic views of an event or get down to the micro-leveland make specific determinations on key properties.

Jesse Kallman is an expert in the drone and softwareindustry with over 13 years of related experience. He is presidentof Atlanta-based, Airbus-backed company, Airbus Aerial.Contact him at [email protected].