Geospatial Intelligence Center Provides Before and After Views of Damaged Properties from Hurricane Florence
Images Available to Emergency Personnel, Insurers and the Public
As Hurricane Florence slowly moved inland, The Geospatial Intelligence Center (GIC) began flying planes over the Carolinas on Monday, taking ultra-high resolution images of the damage and flooding. The resulting imagery, incorporated into Esri’s ArcGIS cloud-based mapping platform, can be viewed by citizens and insurers alike at this website – GIC Hurricane Florence.
By typing in an address, the aerials of the property will appear with a slider that moves to show the before and after views. A fleet of a dozen planes, each equipped with a $1.5 million UltraCam sensor from Vexcel, will be flying in full force this week, documenting the damage to provide insurers with vital information that will help them respond and pay claims faster to help victims get on the road to recovery. The imagery will also be provided at no charge to emergency personnel, first responders and law enforcement to assist in their response to the damage.
The Geospatial Intelligence Center has previously mapped the areas hardest hit by previous hurricanes and disasters and those views are also available. This effort is part of the massive data collection and processing system spearheaded by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), whose member companies write almost 80 percent of all property/casualty insurance and over 94 percent of all auto insurance in the country.
The GIC’s service is available as a result of NICB’s partnership with several public and private organizations, including Vexcel Imaging, the premier aerial imaging company worldwide; Esri, the global leader in location intelligence; and the Federal Geographic Data Committee, whose GeoPlatform is managed by the U.S. Department of Interior and provides hosting and discovery services for national geospatial data assets. Esri makes the service available to any organization who needs it, free of charge, through its Esri Disaster Response Program.
On a regular basis the GIC is in the process of collecting high-resolutions “before” benchmark imagery on the ground and in the air in some 100 markets. Through a network of aviation companies, the GIC is prepared to reach any disaster area in the U.S. within two hours and can begin imagery collection as soon as it is safe to fly and skies have cleared.
About the National Insurance Crime Bureau: Headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation’s leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness. The NICB is supported by more than 1,100 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote over $436 billion in insurance premiums in 2016, or more than 79 percent of the nation’s property/casualty insurance. That includes more than 94 percent ($202 billion) of the nation’s personal auto insurance. To learn more visit www.nicb.org.
About Vexcel Imaging: Founded in 1992, Vexcel Imaging boasts over 20 years of photogrammetric and remote sensing expertise. Its highly successful line of UltraCam systems was launched with the first UltraCam in 2003. In 2006, Vexcel Imaging was acquired by Microsoft Corporation and contributed as a subsidiary to the success of Microsoft’s Bing program by pushing the envelope of photogrammetric hardware and software technology with innovations that underpinned the Bing Maps web service and mapping platform.As a direct result of these advancements, our UltraMap photogrammetric workflow software solution was born and today offers customers with an extremely rapid and efficient solution for generating aerial imagery and downstream data products such as high density point clouds, digital surface models and orthophotos. Ten years later, Vexcel Imaging is again a private company and continuing our story of success with renewed and greater flexibility and agility. Learn more about Vexcel Imaging at http://www.vexcel-imaging.com/.
About Esri: Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, offers the most powerful mapping and spatial analytics technology available. Since 1969, Esri has helped customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Today, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations including the world’s largest cities, most national governments, 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri engineers the most advanced solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and location analytics to inform the most authoritative maps in the world. Visit us at esri.com.
About the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC): The FGDC is an organized structure of Federal geospatial professionals and constituents that provide executive, managerial, and advisory direction and oversight for geospatial decisions and initiatives across the Federal government. In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-16, the FGDC is chaired by the Secretary of the Interior with the Deputy Director for Management, OMB as Vice-Chair.
SOURCE: National Insurance Crime Bureau
Related Links
https://www.vexcel-imaging.com/
http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response
https://www.geoplatform.gov/hurricane-florence-response-and-recovery/
