For much of the country, summer is synonymous with good timesand having fun. But on the Gulf Coast and along the EasternSeaboard—and particularly at property and casualty insurancecompanies—it's also a time for trepidation. As we approachSeptember, and hurricane season is fully underway, people fromMaine to Florida, Alabama to Texas, brace for the potentiallydevastating effects of hurricanes developing in the Gulf and theAtlantic.

Hurricanes are massive, complicated weather systems, due totheir complexity and the difficulty of gathering data in some ofthe most extreme conditions on Earth. But advanced technology likeLiquid Robotics' (LRI) Wave Glider®, an unmanned ocean robotcapable of operating through even the most severe Category 5storms, can continuously collect and transmit hurricane intensitydata in real time. This is game changing.

Wave Gliders connect the undersea world to air, space and shorethrough unprecedented monitoring, assessment and protection of theworld's oceans. They have survived 17 hurricanes, cyclones andtyphoons, and most recently tweeted their way through the 2014hurricane season. They collect real-time data to aid meteorologistsin better modeling and predicting hurricane intensity; a key toimproving evacuation preparedness, reducing false alarms and savinglives.