Drones and Civil Defense
Drones as a Force Multiplier for Natural and Manmade Disaster Recovery
Example of Drones Delivering Life Saving Supplies to Cut-Off Mountaineers
Shawn Hendrix @TheShawnHendrix · 22h Welcome to drone base 2! This is happening because of y’all’s help! Thank you and big shout out to @YALLITSCHAN @CoverCropNC @Unitedcajunnavy @ChrisHallWx @elonmusk @nicksortor @ryanhallyall @PrimeHydrate @RedCon1Official @imPenny2x and everyone sharing this story.
https://x.com/i/status/1841129056252621024
“This is the culmination of everything you guys have been helping with. We’ve got Starlink here. We’ve got batteries here. This is Drone Base 2. We’re taking truckloads of equipment and putting them in bags and delivering them with these drones. And the issue that this whole area is basically wiped out. You can’t get anywhere past this bridge. You look up there there’s houses all up in the mountains in this area and there is no way for these people to get out. So, again, thank you to everyone who got the batteries here, who got material here, who got the Starlinks here. Shout out to Y’All Squad and Chris who to the Starlink going and to everyone else who has been helping. To Russell who’s been flying the drones. People up here have no way to get anything except for this operation here.”
World Discovery By SP @WorldDiscoverSP Last image of a wife and husband in Asheville, NC sheltering from the flood on a roof. The roof would soon collapse, causing them and their 6 year old grandchild to drown. Their daughter and mother of the child took the photograph. When the roof collapsed, she got wedged between debris and was able to be rescued an hour later. And things are way way worse in Burnsville. These pictures need to reach people.
The Life Saving Roles of Using Drones in Disasters
From recent warfare, many know of the death dealing power of drones. Here, I would like to present the life saving side of drones for recovery from natural and manmade disasters. I will use drone videos on X to show the extent of the damage caused by hurricane Helene to demonstrate the utility drones provide for:
Saving lives
Protecting property
Recording storm damage
Assessing storm damage
Using drone footage in insurance applications
Drones have already had and will continue to have a huge impact on damage assessment, emergency management planning, civil defense strategic planning insurance claim validation and other uses we cannot even imagine right now.
Drones are the Future of Planning for and Recovering from Natural and Man-Made Disasters
The Mt. Airy 2018 tornado is when I first saw the force multiplier effect of drones and natural disaster damage recording and recovery and their huge impact on improving those tasks.
George Varros, owner of Mount Airy Drone Photography, has an innovative drone company. Our good fortune. He flew his drone over the damaged area the day after the tornado and again on 11/8/2018. He took aerial drone views of the damage from that tornado. I helped write the Town of Mount Airy Emergency Management Plan back in the 2000’s. It would have been useful to have had this drone technology available then to include in that plan. I highly encourage you to include drones in your emergency plans.
Drones in Recording the Damage and Aiding in Recovery from Hurricane Helene
Drones are providing immediate views of the extent of the damage of hurricane Helene to life and property as well as delivering vital life saving supplies to those impacted. Take the time to review the drone videos on X of all the damage done by hurricane Helene. Below are just a few examples. Unfortunately, Substack does not support this video format yet so I cannot show it here, but do go to each X account and you can see it. Or, copy the HTTPS address to your browser.
Aaron Rigsby @AaronRigsbyOSC First light revealing the destruction in Rolling Fork, MS #MSwx video. https://x.com/i/status/1639616805239943169. It is an excellent drone view of the total destruction of Rolling Fork, NC area. It shows the level of destruction that looks like a nuclear bomb had been dropped, but is is all from hurricane Helene. Unfortunately, Substack does not support this video format yet so I cannot show it here, but do go to his X account and you can see it.
The United Cajan Navy is dropping in life saving food, water and medicine. FearIsAHealer @fearisahealer 15h Quote United Cajun Navy @Unitedcajunnavy https://x.com/i/status/1840483192320520581 Just like the @USNavy, the @Unitedcajunnavy can fly too! Shout out to our drone team for making miracles happen in a pinch! Support our efforts at https://donate.thecajunnavy.org/b/9AQ17Y2MR1QS8aA3ce#unitedcajunnavy… #unitedisstrength #CajunNavyUnited Cajun Navy reposted
Mercury One @Mercury1Charity Asheville, NC is completely isolated and their residents were told they may not have clean water for weeks. We are filling helicopters with water and other vital supplies for Asheville, NC. We need help to get as much as we can to them. Share, pray and give now: https://donate.mercuryone.org/site/Donation2?idb=1321996450&df_id=3761&mfc_pref=T&3761.donation=form1&idb=0
@ChinarvSublett @BobbySeeta 7h Biltmore Village in Asheville, North Carolina after the floodwater receded. Again, I have no words. These images speak for themselves..... #BiltmoreVillage #hurricanehelen #helena #florida #northcarolina #nc #georgia #Ashville https://x.com/i/status/1840734182621753711
AccuWeather @accuweather 5h Devastating drone video from @AaronRigsbyOSC of the damage in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, following Helene. #NCwx https://x.com/i/status/1840757546698817824
Project TABS @ProjectTabs Sep 29 Tennessee farmland after the unprecedented rainwater brought by hurricane Helene. Ashville, NC is getting the same treatment as Maui from our government. Legacy media is MIA. https://x.com/i/status/1840483537365123254
Chandra reposted Shawn Hendrix @TheShawnHendrix 18h please share!! I am working with a team using large AG drones for supply deliveries and thermal cameras looking for survivors. I need a pilot asap to bring us 400 lbs of batteries from Ft. Lauderdale to Hickory NC!
Billy Bowling @babowling12 Sep 28 Live aerials over the flooding aftermath in Erwin, Tn this morning. Pray for these people. https://x.com/i/status/1840081868915609656
X is the Lifeline Saving Tens of Thousands in a Disaster
I joined X (Twitter) in 2007 but only saw the true value of it for dealing with disasters in 2009 when Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed his plane safely on the Hudson River and the new of that miracle was on Twitter an hour before it made the legacy corporate news.
I saw immediately the power of social media to help people and property survive natural and manmade disasters using it. For years, I found it an invaluable tool to track and help with disasters…until it went woke in 2019. Twitter got so, woke, manipulative and evil I had to leave it in 2020.
Then, in 2023, Elon Musk bought Twitter and saved it to do good. He fired 85% of the grifters who worked there. (Hopefully, he can do the same as the DOGE (Director of Government Efficiency with President Donald Trump soon.) In one year, Elon recreated X to be the a free speech platform that is helpful, objective, and a true open platform social media company again that has a vital role to play in disaster warning, preparation, and response. Thankfully, it is no longer an intel community influence and suppression operation.
I am not the only American to notice. William @wbm1880 5h I've only seen a small % of the damage from our local news (in SWFL), most of the of info, pics and video are coming X...thanks for the update.
For years, I have monitored, responded to, learned about, and taught about disasters based on the real-time information and data provided by X. With Elon’s myriad improvements, that mission has become much easier. I encourage you to explore X to learn the true extent of the damage from Helene and other natural and manmade disasters.
As Always, Average Americans ARE the Recovery Effort
Although FEMA, the White House, and most state governments except for Florida are MIA, decent Americans are rallying to save the lives and futures of their fellow Americans, as here: https://x.com/i/status/1840500146615865594 Bill Wadell @BillWadell PLEASE SHARE: Volunteers and complete strangers are coming together with privately owned helicopters to bring emergency supplies in, and help people get out of the hardest hit communities in Western North Carolina. They're asking for donations to help cover the cost of fuel, food, bottled water, and emergency supplies. #WNC #NCwx #Helene #BlackMountain #Asheville #disaster #helene24help #helenerelief https://gofundme.com/f/support-ashevilles-helicopter-rescue-efforts?qid=96150a921c36f6f5917438401976d6ca
Heavy Lift Drones can Deliver Emergency Supplies in Disasters
In addition to the drones ability to document damage in a disaster, other drones can deliver relief supplies. For example, Parallel Flight Technologies offers an heavy lift capability to airlift food, water, medical, and other supplies to those in Western North Carolina, Florida, and other Americans so heavily impacted by hurricane Helene.
As they say on their website, they manufacture autonomous systems to save lives, property, and the environment. Their flagship unmanned aerial system (UAS), Firefly, is a heavy-lift workhorse, designed to carry 100 pounds for 1.6 hours [100 minutes], exponentially longer than all-electric systems. Its modular design with removable arms enables nearly zero downtime maintenance and repair. Firefly is two-person-portable, transportable in the back of a small pickup truck, and can be refueled in less than five minutes. This unique aggregation of features enables significant reduction in operation costs for many applications.
Parallel Flight Technologies was founded in response to the California wildfire crisis, after several founding team members’ homes and livelihoods were threatened by catastrophic wildfires in the Santa Cruz mountains. With a vision to develop revolutionary technology to fight fires, the team set out to develop autonomous, heavy lift, long duration drones. Today, use cases for Parallel Flight Technologies’ technology have expanded ten-fold, and heavy-lift drones are being applied across multiple manmade and natural disasters.
Every First Responder can now be a Pilot in a Disaster
Imagine a future where any first responder can pilot their own simple, safe, inexpensive air vehicle that can take off and land virtually anywhere. With no pilot's license required and 1/10th of the operating cost of traditional helicopters, our ultralight eVTOL aircraft, HEXA, makes this future a reality.
HEXA is available now. You can leverage this unique capability to serve disaster relief missions. The Lift Aircraft called HEXA is a revolutionary individual eVTOL (electric take- off and landing) flight technology with market, strategic, transportation, tactical, safety, human life saving, and civil defense implications as wide ranging as the Cybertruck. Here is a vid of the HEXA flying.
Here is the link to the HEXA story.
Below is a letter I received for Lift Aircraft whereby they are seeking to reach police, fire, medical, search and rescue, emergency and disaster response professionals, that is, the cadre that forms the core of civil defense. Contact them at HEXA Aircraft.
Elon Must is famous for giving the direction for the Cybertruck to his engineers: “The future should look like the future!” The HEXA looks like the future.
Bruce,
After 6 years of development, test, and production, LIFT is excited to announce that HEXA is now available for sale to public agencies. With use cases spanning police, fire, medical, search and rescue, emergency, and disaster response - your agency can be among the very first to leverage electric, vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to serve your agency’s mission.
LIMITED: Only 5 production HEXA allocated to new public agency partners who opt in before the end of 2023.
Quick facts:
Approved: Public agencies operate under Public Aircraft (PAO) rules.
Simple to fly, no pilot’s license is required. Beginner training in < 1 hour.
Reduce response times by up to 80% compared to ground vehicles.
Low noise, low profile - land virtually anywhere.
Operate without ultralight limitations (same as certified aircraft).
Completed pre-operational flight and safety test program.
Completed five R&D and test contracts through Phase 3 with USAF.
Extensive BETA pilot test and training program since May, 2023.
Modular cargo configuration can fly payloads up to 350 lbs.
On the heels of Anderson Cooper flying our aircraft on 60 Minutes, SuperCar Blondie highlighted LIFT (surpassing 130M views of their HEXA flight), and HEXA-Cargo was recently featured in this U.S. Air Force TV commercial.
Your refundable deposit will reserve one of 5 aircraft for your agency. You'll be invited to our training facility near Austin, TX for a demonstration where you'll train and fly HEXA, and meet with our team to discuss your agency's use case.
Together, we can decrease response times and save lives.
Kevin Rustagi
Chief Commercial Officer, LIFT Aircraft
Predicting the Weather with Ai Accuracy: My Radar
For natural disasters, keeping aware of the weather is vital. One tool that is added Ai to their weather predicting is MyRadar. It provides an extremely fast way to get an overall at-a-glance check at potential radar precipitation headed your way. MyRadar is an AI-focused software company that empowers 15 million users with an app that anticipates weather and environmental threats like hurricane Helene. They are now building a constellation of satellites that will monitor Earth from orbit to better predict the weather.
NOTE: On March 20, 2024, I wrote about the coming Black Swan events that we had to prepare to deal with by learning American tactical civil defense skills. With the wars in the Middle East and hurricane Helene, we have had two so far. Expect a third as all bad and good things come in threes.
To recap…
Here, I want to expand on this definition to include three additional realities learned from decades of studying civil defense principals that apply to the multiple Black Swan events coming in 2024:
Multiple Black Swan events can occur in multiple realms at the same time.
One Black Swan event can act as a force multiplier for other Black Swan events.
The Secondaries in the 2024 Black Swan events will tear at your family and our nation but you will not be able to see them until they occur.
Bonus Content
Americans are amazing, just amazing, when it comes to helping each other in disasters. One way average Americans are helping is by providing Starlink units so those Americans in areas with no cell phone service can communicate with the outside world. Here is one example, beautiful Chandra.
Chandra @YALLITSCHAN 20h Thanks to your generosity, @TheYallSquad just bought ALL the @Starlink panels in West Virginia. Putting them on a plane to NC tomorrow!
In contrast to the grace, kindness, and beauty of Chandra delivering life saving Starlink units to her fellow Americans, sadly, we must be aware of and correct the horrible mortal sin and criminal behavior of illegal aliens seeking to take advantage of Helene’s misery to Americans. One example follows.
Collin Rugg @CollinRugg NEW: 8 alleged migrants have been arrested in Eastern, Tennessee for robbing flood victims as local communities try to recover from apocalyptic flooding. Local Americans are helping their neighbors in need however some migrants are capitalizing on the tragedy. Albin Nahun Vega-Rapalo, 24; David Bairon Rapalo-Rapalo, 37; Kevin Noe Martinez-Lopez, 25; Marvin Hernandez-Martinez, 43; and Dayln Gabriel Guillen Guillen, 37 were charged with aggravated burglary. Jesus Leodan Garcia-Peneda, 51; Josue Berardo Ortis-Valdez, 30; and Ersy Leonel Ortis-Valdez, 33, were charged with burglary. While some migrants are robbing people during the tragedy, locals are using privately owned helicopters to deliver supplies as the government shuffles its feet. Local residents are volunteering their time and money to save lives by making rescues and dropping supplies.
The Extent of the Damage and Death will not be Evident for Months
Jason Pepe @Pepesplants Breaking News: ##Hurricane #Flooding #Helene in Western, #NC From my friends in #Asheville: The hospital can no longer sterilize equipment. There are so many bodies in cars you can NOT count. Bodies are laying everywhere. NO AID except rescues. This will be 100 times more dire than Katrina. Rescue hasn’t even started in most areas. Gov Roy Cooper sent only 500 reservists. Zero federal help so far. Last night CNN cut off Asheville spokesman when she started to criticize the response from Gov Roy Cooper and #Biden. There are thousands missing.
Tip: I will write another Substack about the importance of Starlink in disaster recovery.