Disaster Preparedness & Response: Dedicated Catastrophe Response Resources

Our sustained investment in innovative catastrophe response strategies sets Travelers apart from our peers. We handle customer claims, including all catastrophe (CAT) claims, with specially trained Travelers employees; we do not generally contract CAT claims to third-party adjusters. We employ more than 400 dedicated catastrophe response specialists across North America, who are prepared to deploy on 24 hours’ notice. This short video illustrates the work of our CAT response professionals. Operational and logistical support specialists at the National Catastrophe Center support this CAT team, which also partners closely with our nearly 2,000 property Claim professionals to respond to losses promptly, efficiently and compassionately.

In 2023, there were 28 weather disasters which each resulted in total economic impact that exceeded $1 billion,¹ in addition to the many smaller events that impacted our customers. We responded to 74 CAT events and adjusted nearly all of the related claims with our own employees (i.e., without the need for outside adjusters). Our in-house claim capability allowed us to quickly implement procedures to handle claims virtually when possible, and in person when needed, with a consistently high standard of customer service. This capability is a competitive advantage that results in a better outcome for our customers and a more efficient outcome for us.

We leverage our Loss Consultation team – the first such team in the industry – in support of customers impacted by catastrophe events. Our Loss Consultation team consists of Property and Auto coverage experts, who are available seven days a week to give our customers and agents the information they need to make an informed decision regarding whether to file a claim. In some cases, they can also immediately process the claim after confirming coverage.

Our sophisticated workforce management programs help us quickly organize, triage and deploy Claim professionals with the right expertise to the affected area. We leverage the power of more than 30,000 employees to support our response efforts in the event of a large catastrophe. We continue to make significant investments in training our Claim staff and cross-train thousands of employees to handle lower-severity catastrophe claims. This allows our catastrophe and claim experts to focus on high-severity claims without sacrificing quality. In 2023, our Claim professionals completed more than 91,000 hours of property claim training.

Our team follows a catastrophe playbook that includes resource deployment and communication to our customers throughout our process. Our Claim department regularly conducts tabletop exercises to test our readiness to respond to different disaster scenarios, including storms, wildfires, earthquakes, cyberattacks and man-made events. The purpose of these exercises is to evaluate and improve our response to events, identify any gaps in resources and implement a coordinated recovery strategy that prioritizes resources required for the response.

Our National Catastrophe Center, staffed by full-time catastrophe management professionals, allows us to plan and coordinate response activities in a secure environment away from the disaster area – before, during and after an event. Our technical experts monitor weather 24/7 and overlay patterns with claim trends and our customers’ locations. This approach enables us to identify potential events early and to transform information quickly into action. Additionally, our “command center” is equipped with state-of-the-art data management, visualization and teleconferencing tools and is linked to hundreds of data sources, including the Global Forecast System, the National Weather Service Doppler radar network, Travelers Customer Service Centers and our internal systems that track claim metrics and staff resource availability. These capabilities provide us with the ability to deploy resources effectively and on a timely basis, which, in turn, allows us to better assist our customers and to respond to and resolve claims more quickly.

For more information about how we help our customers and agents manage catastrophic weather events, see our Travelers Emergency Response video.

¹ Based on 2023 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.