Personally, for emergency management purposes, I've always thought of drones as being just the ticket for situational awareness. They can be equipped with cameras and other sensors to help with a variety of tasks. On the sensor side of things, they could have sniffers to go into contaminated areas, with less risk to people.
Today, drones are making an impact by helping to restore power in Puerto Rico, see
Drones Help Bring Back Electricity in Puerto Rico. Their uses are almost limitless!
Watch for more creative uses of the technology in the months and years to come. And, yes — I fully expect there will be incidents where people willfully use drones to kill and maim.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
