Features Emergency Services In the Field
UAVs aiding Canadian relief teams in Nepal

Nepal – From the ground in Nepal, the chaos would have been immediate and terrifying. From the skies above, the scope of the tragedy came into sharper focus after Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake — a vast disaster zone with a death toll that has since climbed past 4,600 and turned UNESCO heritage sites such as the Dharahara Tower Hindu shrine into rubble.

Many of those striking aerial images were shot by drones gliding above, the kind of eye-in-the-sky technology that Canadian relief teams will begin deploying as soon as today over the stricken mountainous areas between India and Tibet.​

As these robotic flyers do their work, the American Red Cross is among the agencies that will be watching. Camera-carrying drones have become the latest tool for emergency responders to pin-point where aid is needed.

Earlier this month, the organization’s vice-president of disaster cycle services, Richard Reed, met with the Washington-based drone services company Measure to discuss the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for disaster response within the U.S. | READ MORE