Case Study: Longboat Key accelerates hurricane recovery and damage assessments with Forerunner

Rapid Windshield Assessments From Weeks to Days

The town of Longboat Key, a low-lying Florida community, faced a monumental recovery challenge after being struck by two major hurricanes just days apart. The Building Department, led by Patti Fige, needed to rapidly conduct thousands of damage assessments and manage a highly complex workload, but found that traditional, manual methods were not scalable for the crisis. They turned to the vendor Forerunner and its AI-powered platform to modernize their response.

By implementing Forerunner, the team used its mobile app and Substantial Damage Estimate workflow to conduct field assessments with real-time data capture, dramatically accelerating inspector productivity. The platform's AI-powered Letter Generation tool automated the creation and mailing of 3,000 letters, a task that was completed in one month instead of a projected three. Forerunner’s solution saved the town thousands of staff hours, reduced administrative burdens, ensured compliant reporting for FEMA, and ultimately allowed them to expedite the entire community's recovery process.

Longboat Key

Patti Fige

Longboat Key