Emergency Response

How can you elevate emergency response with experience and expertise?

Natural disasters, accidents, emergencies, and catastrophes require a rapid response to address immediate needs and assess long-term impacts. Exponent has responded to many well-known incidents, including the World Trade Center attack, the Northridge Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion, Hurricane Sandy, and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Our ability to quickly assemble multidisciplinary emergency response teams from our in-house technical experts enables us to effectively address almost any event.

Our emergency response teams can comprise civil, geological, structural, electrical, aeronautical, and mechanical engineers. This breadth of technical expertise enables our teams to determine the root cause of a failure, the nature and extent of the damage, and offer sound recommendations for appropriate repairs. We also provide technical oversight and management of catastrophic disaster planning and response, perform quality control audits of engineering services, and support the identification, recovery, and preservation of key physical evidence needed to determine the cause of a failure.

Defining catastrophe response

The insurance industry defines a catastrophe as an unusually severe natural or human-made disaster where claims are expected to exceed a threshold, currently $25 million, with several carriers affected. In the U.S., tornado and wind-related events make up the majority of catastrophic losses (approximately 40%) with hurricanes and tropical storms close behind. Wind, hail, and flood incidents comprise around 7% of catastrophes, as well as winter storm events near 7%, while terrorism accounts for around 6%, fires 2%, and water damage, utility service interruption, and civil disorders approximately .2%.

Leverage geographic information systems technology to assess catastrophe response accurately

Exponent consultants' experience in real-time data gathering and failure and accident investigation provides vital assistance to property owners, insurance companies, and other stakeholders who require science-backed insights and information to manage their response and recovery. Exponent's engineering experts leverage GIS tools to accurately determine the nature and extent of catastrophic damage and evaluate causalities.