What Colorado’s Floods Looked Like to Drones
Flooding took down power lines, took out sewage systems, and shut down entire towns. Here’s what all that looks like from the perspective of a drone
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Floods in Colorado last week displaced thousands and killed seven people. The water took down power lines, took out sewage systems and shut down entire towns. Here’s what all that looks like from the perspective of a drone:
These videos come from YouTube user Neutography, a local hobbyist. Another team who was using drones to survey the landscape was shut down. The Falcon UAV team volunteered their aerial services to the Boulder County Emergency Center when the flooding began, keeping drones in the air even while National Guard aircraft were grounded due to bad weather. But on Saturday, the team was asked to shut down their drone flights. It’s unclear who sent that message: some say it was FEMA, while FEMA says it was a local county decision.
According to the pilots of the drones, the point wasn’t to sell products or get in the way, but “to see what everything looked like from the air.”
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