The Problem
Hurricane Ida made landfall on Louisiana’s southern coast on 29 August 2021 (16 years to the day of Hurricane Katrina) as a Category 4 system with sustained winds of 150mph (241kph). Ida’s impact was immediate and far ranging with storm surge into the low lying coastal areas, flooding roads and small coastal communities as well as widespread damage from high windspeeds. Power was immediately lost to the whole of New Orleans city. Across the affected area some 1 million residents, numerous businesses and industrial facilities were also without power.
The Solution
A combination of machine learning, aerial and satellite imagery, fused with other sources such as media and weather data, allowed our expert analysts to generate an analysis of the storm’s impact on the ground down to individual building level as well as the impact to key infrastructure. This included an assessment of peril (wind, flood, or a combination of the two) and was with the market within eight hours of the storm’s passage.
The reports produced by our Intelligence Analysts were viewed by over 120 users from 40+ companies across the Lloyd’s market. Custom analysis was provided to clients, with exposure assessments made against over 350,000 individual locations, with a further refined claims assessment made against 115,000 of these locations. Clients were alerted to over 1000 insured assets that had been destroyed or severely damaged, within days of the event, when physical access to locations may be limited and Delegated Claims Administrator tasking is of the utmost importance.
