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Florida, the Sunshine State, is no stranger to storms that are larger than life. But in September 2022, when Hurricane Ian struck, resilience was put to the test, not only for people on the ground but also for insurers who found themselves in the center of the storm.
T-2 days
Before Florida, Ian made landfall in the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 3 hurricane. With the winds intensifying, fear had begun to sink in for Florida residents. What's more, insurers were under immense pressure to predict the impact of Hurricane Ian and prioritize their resources to effectively respond to the catastrophe of the decade
However, despite the preparation, it was hard to foresee the degree of havoc Ian was about to wreak. How do you prepare for a threat you can't accurately predict?
In the eye of the storm
Ian came in as a Category 4 hurricane, with ferocious winds just 2 mph shy of Category 5 classification right before it made landfall. In the weeks that followed, Florida experienced immense destruction. Rivers swelled up, buildings and infrastructure collapsed, and millions of people were cut off from the grid.
Once the storm ended, the struggle to return to normal started. A significant part of that is always dependent on people getting their insurance claims approved to start repairing and rebuilding. After all, they purchase insurance for this very reason. Insurers, however, found it incredibly challenging to deploy adjusters as large areas were inaccessible due to the extensive devastation from the storm. The scale of the destruction left both insurance adjusters and impacted customers stranded.
This is where Swiss Re's innovative solution Rapid Damage Assessment (RDA) stepped in to circumnavigate these operational roadblocks.
"Our clients were able to leverage the true power of data and technology to predict, prepare and respond to catastrophes of this scale and support their policyholders after Hurricane Ian. RDA's NatCat model-driven loss predictions and actual damage assessment with artificial intelligence on high-resolution imagery helped our clients optimize adjuster deployments, remotely triage claims, inspect properties, and even proactively reach out to homeowners to extend their support.
This was a good validation of our mission, which is to enable our insurance partners to support their policyholders with empathy and efficiency in their time of need."
- Abhishek Mishra, Senior RDA Product Manager, Swiss Re
While the ‘art of possible’ with technology is rapidly ascending and regularly defies our preconceived notions, actual success or failure will be measured on business outcomes delivered by leveraging technology. Insurers who effectively use solutions like Swiss Re RDA to supplement their claims response for Hurricane Ian will continue to build their credibility and trust with customers.