Our information society spent a lot of time stunned by what we knew and amazed at what we didn't. We knew one of America's cities was mostly underwater, and several smaller ones largely destroyed altogether. But we still had no idea how many people were killed by Hurricane Katrina--hundreds or thousands. We watched the images of the rescuers, heard the stories of victims. Against those, the stories of insurance adjusters and Web-site operators and data-center managers struggling to do their jobs don't sound too heart-pounding. But they're all part of how New Orleans and its environs are going to get back to work. And life.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Laforet/Pool

---

Insurers Go Wireless

The monumental rebuilding effort that awaits in the wake of Hurricane Katrina hinges on many factors. One is the millions of conversations individuals and business owners will have with their insurance agents and adjusters before the cash starts flowing. Allstate Insurance Co., the second-largest property insurer in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina, sped up claims-adjustment efforts by linking platoons of adjusters to its Chicago headquarters' systems via satellite-equipped vans. That lets adjusters relay claims information they gather without waiting for regular telephone service to be restored.

"We are not dependent on a cell-phone tower. We can automatically connect from the van to a satellite," said Catherine Brune, senior VP and CIO at Allstate, the morning after the hurricane struck.

Allstate deployed more than 20 mobile communications vans, which will be available as links between headquarters' systems and the 1,500 adjusters moving into the affected areas, Brune said. Adjusters from around the country were called into the region, but once there, they need to know the details of a policy before they can tell customers whether they're eligible for a housing allowance or let them know what the level of insurance was on the contents of their home. And adjusters need authorization from the head office to cut checks for emergency housing or settlements.

All the major insurers put such teams on the scene of a disaster, but the mobile van link between adjusters and headquarters is a relatively new addition in the last two years, says Donald Light, an analyst at Celent LLC, a financial-services and insurance analyst group. Using a wireless link to the home office "could speed up a claims settlement by 50% to 80%," Light says.

Claims adjusters have all the information they need on a laptop to estimate the amount of damage at the scene. But interaction with headquarters' back-office systems is critical to getting claims checks into the hands of customers. Although damage totals won't be known for weeks, Katrina potentially could be the most expensive storm in history to the insurance companies.

--Charles Babcock