Friday, September 1, 2017

San Francisco Bay Area Water Rescue Team Uses Drones in continued Search and Rescue Operations around Houston, Texas.

While I couldn't deploy with the California Task Force 3 Water Rescue Team to Houston over the weekend, I have been tracking their deployment, as well as other official UAV teams in the area.

It is clear to me that Hurricane Harvey will provide a tremendous amount of "Lessons Learned" when it comes to the use of UAVs, the implementation and the regulatory environment during and after a large scale disaster. I predict that Public Safety will use UAVs in many more ways in the very near future - because this is all such new technology, the focus has mostly been on utilizing drones during an incident. It's evident that pre-disaster use, and as we already know, post incident data gathering are also extremely beneficial. The mapping of levees, river beds, structures before an incident can provide very helpful data for modeling purposes, for evacuation and search and rescue operations. Comparing pre and post disaster data of the same area allows researchers, scientists, engineers and city planners to improve upon city layouts and infrastructures.

Below is an account from Menlo Park Fire Protection District, which has several members in the Houston area, utilizing their drones for a variety of tasks. I wanted to share this as these are the stories that highlight the tremendous benefits of this technology and shows how our first responders are implementing new technologies to not only help save other people's lives and properties, but to also keep themselves more safe and efficient. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me or Menlo Park Fire Department, Harold Schapelhouman (Fire Chief).  Read More

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