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Why IBHS Sub-Severe Hail Research Shouldn’t Guide Forensic Damage Assessments

Using the Wrong Tool for the Job: Why IBHS Sub-Severe Hail Research Shouldn’t Guide Forensic Damage Assessments By Steve Smith, PE, Director of Research and Testing, Principal Forensic Engineer Admit it. We’ve all done it. We’ve used a boot as a hammer, or a key in place of a screwdriver. We needed a tool and we opted for the nearest object that can get the job done. Not using the right tool for the job caused us to gouge the heel of our boot or bend our house key. We should have spent 60 seconds walking to the toolbox and chosen the right tool, and instead, we’ve made a mess of things. A similar thing has happened over the past couple of years, but this time, some in the roofing industry are using research papers intended to explore potential shortfalls in underwriting and risk assessment, as though the papers are

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Driving Through Hail: Field Research that Helped Shape Modern Forensic Meteorology

Driving Through Hail: Field Research that Helped Shape Modern Forensic Meteorology My Time on Project HailSTONE By Jared Leighton, CCM, Senior Forensic Meteorologist Before joining Haag’s Forensic Meteorology team, I worked as a forecaster for the National Weather Service (NWS). During that time, I was invited to participate in a field project called the Hail Spatial and Temporal Observation Network Effort–better known as HailSTONE. The purpose of the project was simple but critical: to document and capture the true hailfall distribution in a severe storm to supplement our understanding of hail data garnered through NWS storm reports. This extra layer of understanding helps in the assessment and analysis of real-world storm damage. The project had no organizational funding and no official sponsors. Instead, the idea was simple and a bit wild: use our own vehicles, on personal time, and on our own dime to drive into hail-producing supercells and collect

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When to Call an Equipment Damage Consultant is Just as Important as Why

When to Call an Equipment Damage Consultant is Just as Important as Why By Paul Christoferson, Senior Building Consultant When power is suddenly lost, many insureds instinctively call a generator rental company, believing this is the fastest way to restore operations. In practice, this is often the first step in a series of costly missteps. Within the insurance consulting industry, certain risk scenarios appear repeatedly across sectors. Electrical power outages are among the most common and disruptive events, impacting businesses, communities, and insurers alike. Their frequency and wide-ranging consequences make them a critical focus for consultants seeking to: Mitigate avoidable claim costs for carriers Reduce business interruptions and extra expense exposure for insureds Restore operations as quickly and safely as possible Electrical Power Outage Claims: A Real-World Equipment Damage Example The following scenario, taken from an FM Boiler RE Lessons Learned article, illustrates how quickly extra expense can escalate without

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