I wrote here a couple of years ago about the increasing use of drones in assessing property damage after large weather events. At the time I was concerned that use of drones would actually decrease efficiency in assessing claims.
Slate has an article here about the planned use of drones after Hurricane Harvey. It does look like the use of drones will allow insurers to more quickly assess external damage to numerous properties than would be possible with adjusters being present for each inspection. An important feature of the use of drones is that they can take pictures where it would be unsafe for adjusters to venture. But, as the Slate article points out, there is also a downside: since the adjusters will not be physically present at the property, the face to face interaction between the insurer and the policyholder is lost. Given the scale of destruction expected from Harvey, that seems like a reasonable tradeoff for speed and safety of damage assessments.