NOAA Data, Insurability, and Community Resilience

This paper highlights four regional initiatives where innovative solutions providers are using NOAA data to bridge the gap between risk and resilience: Coastal Flooding (Massachusetts): Organizations like InnSure are conducting "insurability planning" to help historic coastal towns qualify for coverage by identifying specific structural risks and coordinating regional adaptation actions like building seawalls. Wind & Hail (Alabama): The Strengthen Alabama Homes program utilizes grants to retrofit roofs to "FORTIFIED" standards, demonstrating that a 1–2% increase in construction costs can significantly decrease insurance premiums and structural failure rates while boosting home sale prices. Hail and Solar Infrastructure (Sunny States): The company kWh Analytics models hail risks and provides real-time risk mitigation messaging to asset owners to ensure that solar photo-voltaic technologies remain insurable despite evolving weather threats. Wildfire (California & Colorado): Faura used individualized home risk reports to empower homeowners to harden their properties, resulting in better insurer-customer communication and premium discounts of 20% for proactive residents in some cases.