We Are Providing Rapid Answers Through Machine Learning Post-Hurricane Harvey

With the catastrophic damage left behind by Hurricane Harvey, thousands of homeowners are left asking “What’s next?” Here at EagleView, we have been working around the clock since the storm made landfall to help answer these property questions as quickly as possible.

With more than 40 flights already flown by Friday morning, we have been collecting and analyzing property imagery at a record pace. We have also been able to apply our machine learning capabilities to our high-resolution aerial imagery to create extremely valuable property analytics data. As a result, insurance carriers can close claims rapidly despite high post-storm volumes. First to market, our insurance customers will have access to pre- and post-storm imagery in conjunction with machine learning processed images, allowing for adjusters to close claims without physically visiting the property.

Machine learning allows insurance carriers to review an image and classify damage efficiently by stratifying potential property damage based on probability thresholds. This high-speed process allows billions of image pixels to be analyzed quickly – far faster than can be analyzed with the human eye.

“We understand that following a catastrophic weather event, timing is crucial,” stated Lars Dyrud, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning. “Introducing machine learning into our existing claims inspection tools allows us to assess millions of property images for damage in just minutes, enabling our insurance partners to respond more quickly and position resources more effectively than ever before. This technology can be applied through aerial imagery whether derived from manned aircraft, satellites or drones.”

This morning, the TODAY show on NBC featured our pre-and post-event imagery from Hurricane Harvey. These images are representative of the paired image sets that insurance carriers are able to access from us instantaneously. In addition, post-event images are processed with machine learning, indicating areas and probability of property damage.

“Our image capture and processing capabilities are the strongest out there for insurance carriers processing claims after a storm of this magnitude,” stated Hugh West, Vice President of Insurance Sales. “We’re thrilled to be able to help property owners in these stressful times by working closely with our insurance partners who service their claims whether through our imagery, property measurement reports, or EagleView OnSite Solutions™.”

We currently work with 18 of the top 20 property and casualty insurance carriers in the United States.

Click below to view pre-, post-, and machine-learning applied imagery from Hurricane Harvey: