Vexcel to Provide Catastrophe Analytics on Properties After Major Weather Events and Natural Disasters

Vexcel Data Program announced today a new product to enhance insights and learning across imagery collected after a major weather event. Introducing Elements: Damage Assessment, a faster, more reliable way to identify destruction on a property following a hurricane, tornado, or wildfire.

"This new capability helps our customers increase their knowledge on a property affected by wind and fire events, essentially changing the way they see and understand a storm’s impact," shared Erik Jorgensen, CEO of Vexcel Group. "We’ve gone beyond what’s discernible by the eye and helped uncover—through the application of machine learning—what’s changed using our high-resolution post-CAT imagery. This in turn helps government agencies, insurers, and many others improve their response to impacted communities with faster, more reliable data showcasing property conditions."

Damage Assessment is part of Vexcel’s Elements product line which uses machine learning (ML) to deliver rapid property insights. Providing this level of detail goes hand in hand with Vexcel’s disaster imagery collection program (called Gray Sky), since its inception in 2017 with Hurricane Harvey in Texas. No one captures more disasters in the United States. And now Damage Assessment data can be automatically calculated and provided in a report shortly after imagery is published, so insurers can more efficiently and effectively respond to those impacted, without ever setting foot on the ground.

Faster Property Insights for Multiple Uses
A damage assessment of each property that falls inside a natural disaster impacted zone will be available to customers. These additional property insights can help multiple industries scale their responses to a disaster more appropriately or use the information to better prepare for future events.

Insurance companies* can verify which policy holders have damaged property and begin the claims process immediately
Emergency managers can locate the biggest debris obstructions on structures or property challenges as part of the recovery process
Property assessors can identify changes on a property to update tax rolls in cases of extreme loss
CAT/Risk modelers can analyze how a weather event moved through a community and identify what materials survived to plan for future disasters
Damage Assessment will be available through Vexcel’s API and web-based application, Viewer, and will deliver an overall CAT score and FEMA classification estimate as well as specific information in percentages (0-100%) such as the degree to which debris covers a building, roof condition, missing roof material, and tarp coverage.

* Vexcel is the operations partner for the Geospatial Insurance Consortium (GIC), providing aerial imagery and data specifically packaged for insurers. Learn more at gic.org.