6 Unique, Cutting-Edge Tools to Help Prevent Losses in the Event of a Natural Disaster

This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.

As catastrophic natural disasters continue to devastate the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry, loss prevention remains a priority for insurers and property owners alike. Fortunately, researchers and inventors are constantly thinking of new technologies, gadgets, and tools to help reduce losses and protect consumers when disaster strikes.

With the P&C sector in a critical state, balancing increasing losses and an ever-changing risk landscape, technology will play a critical role in the sector's success, and survival. Let's explore some unique, useful, and technological loss prevention tools on the market for three common types of natural disasters.

Wildfires

Each year, uncontrolled wildfires destroy millions of acres of land and the homes and businesses that stand in their path. The long-term economic and environmental impacts of wildfires are devastating and can take decades to recover from.

Because wildfires often strike quickly and without much warning, early detection of these types of disasters is critical when it comes to reducing property damage and saving lives. However, current wildfire prevention solutions, including manual watch towers, satellite systems, and cameras are not nearly as accurate or up-to-date as needed to detect unauthorized fires before they do a significant amount of damage.

1. Early detection of wildfire sensors

Recent wildfire loss prevention technologies aim to address this shortcoming by providing early wildfire detection. Dryad Networks, an environmental IoT startup headquartered in Berlin, Germany, has developed Silvanet, a network of wireless environmental sensors that use solar energy and mesh gates to aid in the low-cost early detection of wildfires. Sensors pick up signs of a growing wildfire such as rising carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas particles in the air, giving firefighters a head start on putting out fires before they spread.

What makes it cool?

One of the biggest challenges for wildfire detection sensors is their energy consumption. Using only solar panels to power the sensors is not a good option in the forest where large groups of trees block a significant amount of sunlight. Using the STM32WL (We are not too proud to admit that this technology is beyond our understanding level. If you like, here is the description), Dryad developers found a way to overcome the challenge of power consumption and create a system. that will last 15 years in the forest.

2. Fire fighting robots

Yes, you read that right. Fighting wildfires is a dangerous job, but with the help of robots, people can fight fires without putting their lives in danger. Most of the firefighting robots currently in use are remote control devices for firefighters. This enables robots to navigate steep terrain or enter burning buildings without putting people's lives at risk.

However, buildings are made for people, so while most firefighting robots look more like cars than people, researchers have developed human-like models to help firefighters in domestic emergencies. These humanoid robots can perform tasks such as opening doors, walking up and down stairs, and operating fire hoses.

What makes it cool?

You mean unless we're talking about fire fighting robots? At AgentSync, we're big proponents of using technology to automate the time-consuming tasks of your people and take them away from high-value work. By offloading work, such as carrying heavy objects or evacuating people from an affected area, to robots, firefighters can focus their time and energy on their priority: stopping the spread of the fire.

It's the same way our products take over producer licensing and compliance tasks from insurance agencies', carriers, and MGA plates, allowing their people to get back to their core business: selling and providing insurance products.

Floods

We cannot talk about natural disasters without talking about floods. Flooding is the most common and costliest natural disaster in the US The National Weather Service estimates that nearly 122 million people are at risk of flooding in the spring of 2024 alone. In the five-year period between 2018-2022, floods have accumulated nearly $45 billion in insured losses worldwide.

More frequent and heavy rainfall means that flooding is becoming an increasingly serious problem in large cities and towns, but awareness of the risk of all types of flooding remains low. This lack of awareness means that many home and business owners underestimate the amount of insurance they need.

1. Publicly available, accurate water data

To help the public make more informed decisions about water safety and flood management, the National Weather Service launched the National Water Prediction Service website in March of 2024. The platform, which uses state-of-the-art software that integrates cloud infrastructure and geospatial technology, offers more. accurate, easy-to-use water data to help analyze and predict flood risk.

What makes it cool?

While the website may not sound like firefighting robots, public access to real-time flood data can save lives. The National Water Prediction Service website provides users with information on current water conditions anywhere in the US Plus, with the help of API technology, users can access real-time water flow information directly from their devices.

Whether we're talking about insurance producer licensing or flood repair, access to up-to-date data is critical to your decision-making. Accurate flood forecasting data gives homeowners and businesses enough time to protect their property and valuables and evacuate if necessary.

2. Water Gate

When you hear the word Water-Gate, you probably think of illegal political activities, but this time we're talking about something on the nose. MegaSecu's Water-Gate water barrier is an actual “gate” used to stop water from flooding a building or property. Made of heavy-duty PVC, the Water-Gate barrier opens as the water level rises to prevent flooding.

What makes it cool?

Traditionally, homeowners and businesses use sandbags to cushion the area around their property and prevent flooding. However, sandbag barriers can take hours of manual labor to fill and use and often leak, rendering them useless after one or two uses. The Water-Gate barrier has a lifespan of 20 years and can be operated in just five minutes using two people and no other resources.

Helping people do more with less is the goal that Water-Gate and AgentSync share. Just look at how one forward-thinking MGA reduced its producer licensing workload from 1.5 full-time employees to just 30 minutes a day with the help of AgentSync.

Earthquakes

Not even a day into 2024, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook Japan, moving the coastline by more than 800 meters and costing nearly $6.5 billion in total insured losses. Earthquakes and their aftershocks can damage homes and businesses, destroy infrastructure, and disrupt transportation. They cause nearly $15 billion in damage each year in the US alone, from a few broken windows to a complete building collapse. However, as the most recent major earthquake in Taiwan shows, robust infrastructure and loss prevention is an issue.

1. Seismic Protection of Critical Infrastructure

Seismic-Cloacking Protection of Critical Infrastructure, or SCPCI, involves a boring series of slanted openings around any structure that needs to be protected to make it “invisible” to shock waves, similar to how a muffler dampens sound waves. .

The boreholes range from feet to meters in diameter and around 150 meters deep. Once drilled, they turn the surrounding ground into a material to reflect and deflect harmful seismic waves away from the surrounding structure. The technology is still in the early stages of development but has the potential to protect billions of dollars worth of infrastructure and save thousands of lives.

What makes it cool?

In effect, the SCPCI downgraded the seismic strength of a magnitude 7 earthquake to that of a magnitude 5 earthquake. This has the potential to reduce earthquake damage from major structural, environmental, and economic losses to just a few broken vessels. As cool as it is, this type of infrastructure can protect many areas, from a single building to an entire city.

2. Backpack rats

Apart from damage and loss of property, earthquakes can also cause great loss of human life. When disaster strikes, time is of the essence as rescuers search the rubble of collapsed buildings for trapped survivors. People are in a very critical situation when it comes to finding and rescuing people after an earthquake. In particular, we are too large to navigate safely through the fallen debris. Researchers at the non-profit organization APOPO have a better solution: mice. Specifically, mice wear small backpacks equipped with a camera, a two-way microphone, and a GPS signal.

What makes it cool?

Two words: Backpack rats. Besides, it's great that the developers were able to make the technology small enough to fit inside a mouse-sized bag and strong enough to send and receive waves under heavy earthquake debris. Combined with the mouse's abilities, such as its amazing sense of smell and its ability to learn and adapt quickly, the whole concept is a true testament to the power of combining human (or mouse) skills with modern technology to improve efficiency and overall success.

Technology plays several important roles in the insurance industry

While the main goal of this article is to highlight a few of the most interesting natural disaster loss prevention tools out there, the main lesson comes from the role technology plays in the insurance industry. Whether on a large scale (reducing insured losses from natural disasters enough to positively impact overall purchasing and availability of P&C insurance) or small scale (allowing a single producer to engage with an agency quickly and efficiently), clear technology is critical to the future success of our industry.

If all this talk of fire fighting robots and little mouse warriors has you feeling empowered and ready to swap your legacy insurance technology for more modern, efficient solutions, AgentSync can help. Watch the demo to learn more.

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