National Storm Damage Center Forms and Launches New Technology

PLANO, Texas — Former EagleView Technologies Co-Founder Dave Carlson and Trevor Leeds, who was instrumental in taking the pioneer of aerial imaging to market, have come back together to form The National Storm Damage Center (NSDC).

The NSDC has developed a groundbreaking forensic, geo-targeted technology that can detect every critical characteristic of an impending tornado and hurricane, including the precise addresses that will be most affected, and alert homeowners about the storm crisis through text messages, all in real time. This is the first time these capabilities have been combined under one umbrella to detect the exact location and intensity of a storm, whether it involves a tornado, hurricane, flash flood or hail storm anywhere in the world.

The impact this technology could potentially have on the roofing industry and contractors is immense, said Leeds, the new CEO of the NSDC. “What we’ve developed is a 24/7/365 next-generation forensic weather-reporting monitoring system featuring geo-targeted coordinates with more than 95 percent accuracy that can monitor any home or property in the world, right down to its exact address,” he explained.

The NSDC’s innovative portal for homeowners pairs them with roofing and building contractors and public insurance adjusters who work for the homeowners, not insurance carriers. “We designed a consumer face that touches a property owner, roofing and building contractors and public insurance adjuster at the time of need, right after a storm hits and devastates a property,” Leeds said.

Leeds said one of the biggest complaints by homeowners after a storm event is that they feel taken advantage of by “unscrupulous storm-chasing contractors.” Homeowners also traditionally feel that they’ve been underpaid on their insurance claims or that their claims have been unfairly denied all together by their insurance carriers. The NSDC’s public-adjustor partnership will be a liaison between the homeowner, contractor and insurance carrier, a first-of-its-kind program.

“The NSDC brings a level of education, information and resources to a property owner after a storm, and it connects them to licensed and certified contractors so they’re not being taken advantage of by storm chasers or an insurance carrier who attempts to reduce the amount of their claim or deny it altogether,” Leeds explained.

Before the creation of NSDC, organizations of this nature were geared mostly toward contractors, not homeowners, and more exclusive for select contractors paying to get the leads following a storm.

“We wanted to take a different approach,” Leeds said. “We not only want to provide certified contractors to customers, but we want to provide ongoing training and education to the consumer, as well as the contractor, as to how to manage and mitigate the claims process with the insurance carriers.”

“We want to give consumers a place to get valuable information at the click of a button,” he added. “We don’t want them to have to wait in a time of crisis. We wanted them to be able to go to the site and use resourceful tools to get current information.”

For more info, visit www.stormdamagecenter.org.