Hurricane season is right around the corner, and five to nine Atlantic hurricanes are in the forecast.
There’s a great article from Facility Executive that we ran across recently, which outlines a few ways to reduce personal property losses and storm-related injuries.
Business Interruption Exposure
The first thing they bring up is reducing exposures through modeling tools to better manage (and anticipate) business interruption during post-storm restoration. Of note, Superstorm Sandy experienced an estimated $30 billion (of the total $50 billion) attributed to lost profits due to closed facilities and the shutdown of power.
What impact could BuildFax data have in anticipating these lapses in business? Because BuildFax insights are extracted from billions of data points on commercial and residential structures, and the information BuildFax gathers contains an ‘applied for’ and ‘completed’ date on renovations, there is massive potential for improving the accuracy of timeline estimates for storm-related restorations. This would result in more appropriate business interruption/extra expenses coverage.
Secondary Property Characteristics
The article also discusses the importance of making sure secondary property characteristics are up-to-date. They stress the critical nature of relaying accurate, detailed property information to the carrier.
There’s a slew of secondary modifiers that go into coming up with a more accurate estimate of potential loss. BuildFax provides property condition and history insights that are powerful secondary modifiers. These include roof age, maintenance history on major systems such as HVAC, electric, and plumbing, and more.
BuildFax recently collaborated on a study with RMS on the influence of roof age on hurricane vulnerability. The research shows that roofs in Florida older than 20 years are associated with more severe claims as compared to roofs that are younger than five. It also delves into the effects roof age can have on modeled average annual loss.
READ: The Age of a Roof and The Price You Pay: New Analysis of Hurricane Risk in the U.S.
For more information on how BuildFax property insights can help you prepare for hurricane season, contact us today.