Catherine, Content and Production Director

Within the Claims department you told me that you will begin to use drone technology to help with your work, what are the benefit of this location-based visualization of data for your role?

Dwight Jones, Senior Weather Catastrophe Specialist, State Farm.

Drone technology will allow us to view areas that are so devastated that we cannot send anyone to the area for safety reasons or the roads are not passable. Also drone technology will allow us to inspect the roof of homes if it is not safe to climb on the roof. Using this technology will allow us to assess damage in real time. This will prevent delays and rescheduling. Technology also speeds up the claim process and help us deliver remarkable customer service.

Catherine, Content and Production Director
Is there any form of location-based data, technology or know-how that aids you in real-time when catastrophes strike? If so, what is it, and if not… how come?

Dwight Jones, Senior Weather Catastrophe Specialist, State Farm.
Eagle View Technology can be used on any home in the country. This technology provides aerial roof measurements reports. This helps with what the roof looked like during a certain time. It tells the before and after picture.

Catherine, Content and Production Director
What are the three biggest challenges you face each day within your role?

Dwight Jones, Senior Weather Catastrophe Specialist, State Farm.
• Getting the policyholders to understand why something is not covered based on the policy they purchased.
• Dealing with the different laws in each state. Every state has their own Insurance Commissioner and laws.
• Hearing about the personal tragedies from policyholders.

Catherine, Content and Production Director
Are you seeing an impact from Global Warming in your work within Weather Catastrophe?

Dwight Jones, Senior Weather Catastrophe Specialist, State Farm.
Yes. There use to be a time when you knew when hail season and hurricane season would occur and how long they would last. The weather pattern is unpredictable due to Global Warming. There are hail storms, hurricanes and tornados outside the normal season. We have to make adjustments to staffing and premiums to account for the increase in uncertainty.

Catherine, Content and Production Director
Why do you think it’s important to engage in conferences like GeoInsurance USA, 2019?

Dwight Jones, Senior Weather Catastrophe Specialist, State Farm.
It is important to engage in the Geoinsurance conference because of the of networking opportunities. You will also learn about new technology and possible new ways to improve your processes and provide better customer service. Hopefully we can learn to improve processes and efficiencies. Consequently, reducing cost.