Before and After: Seaside Heights, N.J.

On Oct. 30, 2012, New York and New Jersey experienced the unimaginable when Superstorm Sandy tore through the East coast. Pictured here are before and after aerial images taken by Pictometry.

The company deployed aircraft to capture high-resolution oblique imagery of the devastated areas within days of the storm, and collected more than 160,000 data-rich, Sandy-specific images that allowed for before and after comparisons of property damage directly from desktops, tablets and other mobile computing devices. This enabled key forensic information – such as determining if the damage was caused by surge waters versus the storm’s winds – to be analyzed and documented on a large scale.

In cases of widespread disasters, claims management professionals and adjustors can utilize aerial imagery to help visualize a storm’s impact, determine policyholders affected and plan response operations. This specialized imagery is also used to produce remote measurements – such as roof measurement reports – to aid in faster claims processing.