Sandy is a storm that will live in infamy. Though not yet considered the costliest (or the deadliest, thank goodness) of U.S. natural disasters, the hurricane-turned-cyclone delivered an economic sucker punch to millions of businesses and households, causing widespread power outages and a swath of massive flooding- and wind-related damages.
The “superstorm” also generated a staggering number of P&C claims, including more than 230,000 auto losses, as well as immediate, multifaceted logistical challenges to catastrophe adjusters, some of whom reported spending 2 hours a day in gas station lines to refuel at the height of the post-storm chaos (and immediately after losing all their earthly possessions).
Longterm challenges include reigniting the contentious debate about wind versus water losses, and as is often the case with a disaster of this magnitude, a crop of lawsuits and bad press about insurers. It will be interesting to see what role technology and atmospheric computer models will play in assessing the root cause of property damages. One forensic meteorologist explained to me recently that certain hurricane models are able to determine what the sustained wind speeds and gusts were every 15 minutes during the course of a storm at a specific loss address.
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