High Tech Augments Usual Messaging Methods

New York City has added a new tool to warn residents about threatening weather and flooding: drones.

Drones equipped with loudspeakers now buzz around areas of the city where severe weather or flooding is forecast to hit, warning residents to take shelter or evacuate. The drones are in addition to the types of alerts and warnings most of us are familiar with, such as radio, television, text, and social media. There is also a system in place to send alerts that reach more than 2,000 community-based organizations serving people with disabilities and senior citizens.

Teams of emergency management personnel, each with several UASes, deploy to specific areas of the city and neighborhoods that are known to be prone to flooding, and play the warning messages in multiple languages. People living in garden- or basement-level dwellings are especially vulnerable to danger from flooding.

“Be prepared to leave your location. If flooding occurs, do not hesitate,” is an example of what the UASes are programmed to sound out. Basement apartments have been especially dangerous because they fill with water very quickly in heavy rain. New York City had 11 people drown in such dwellings in 2021 as the last of Hurricane Ida made its way across the city.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who considers himself a “tech geek,” recently said to the press, “You know, we live in a bubble, and we have to meet people where they are in notifications so they can be prepared.”

FMI:  www.nyc.gov/