Video summary
The video addresses the catastrophic impact of recent hurricanes, specifically Hurricane Helén and Hurricane Milton, which caused devastating flooding, wind damage, and tornadoes across Florida and North Carolina. These natural disasters resulted in over 250 deaths and nearly $80 billion in damages, leaving entire neighborhoods submerged and infrastructure like roads and bridges destroyed. The speaker, a drone industry expert with over a decade of experience, shares personal accounts from his home in Asheville and Tampa, describing scenes where water reached knee-deep levels, power grids failed for weeks, and communication networks went offline, making it impossible for residents to call for help or for first responders to navigate the affected areas safely.
In response to these crises, the presentation highlights the critical role of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in providing rapid situational awareness when traditional methods fail. Instead of relying on expensive multi-million dollar satellite systems or waiting for physical access that may be impossible due to debris and flooding, drone operators deployed hundreds of missions within hours to map washed-out roads, assess structural damage to stadiums and bridges, and locate disabled individuals. A notable example involves students who drove 1,000 miles to North Carolina to create 3D models of inaccessible roads in just half an hour, enabling search and rescue teams to make split-second decisions without needing to physically reach the site first.
The core argument emphasizes that in disaster scenarios, speed and visual intelligence are far more valuable than high-precision surveying accuracy. Companies like Skyo and utility providers such as Duke Energy utilized drones to generate real-time data on collapsed cranes and damaged power lines, allowing engineers and emergency services to prioritize life-saving interventions over weeks-long recovery processes. The speaker illustrates how aerial data helped relocate thousands of displaced people from unsafe shelters and guided energy companies in restoring connectivity, proving that accessible visual data can be the difference between life and death when communication is severed and time is critical.
Ultimately, the video serves as both an educational showcase and a call to action for the drone industry to expand beyond conventional surveying applications into emergency response and disaster management. The speaker, who teaches thousands of students globally, encourages professionals to leverage this technology in unconventional ways to solve immediate problems rather than focusing solely on centimeter-level precision. By sharing stories of community resilience and technological adaptation, the presentation concludes that integrating drones into emergency protocols can significantly enhance public safety, save lives, and provide essential intelligence when it matters most during times of extreme adversity.
Read the full video transcript
I mean, it was the storm of the century,
right?
>> Extreme flooding risk for Ashlin.
>> We know that this is just the beginning
of what has been and continue to be an
awful and devastating natural disaster.
>> We were dealing with this wind event on
top of the flooding event. That's why
you saw 120y old oak trees snap in half
60 foot in the air. Helen leaving a path
of destruction far and wide. We've seen
historic flooding.
>> Hurricane Helen.
>> Hurricane Hony.
>> Hurricane Helen's wake. Devastation and
destruction stretching as far as the eye
can see.
>> I just remember saying, "Oh my gosh. Oh
my gosh.
>> I'm okay. It's okay.
>> The the everything's gone. It's all
gone."
This is the city of Asheville in the
western mountains of North Carolina,
2,000 feet above sea level and hundreds
of miles away from the nearest
coastline.
>> The storm caused devastating flooding in
the southeast and is responsible for
over 250 deaths and nearly 80 billion in
damages.
>> Also in Tampa, this man going viral for
kayaking in his flooded home. Some
people watching the now viral video
saying this is Florida man. Hey there,
I'm Hie and we are coming on the air
tonight with the newest update from the
National Hurricane Center literally
within the last 60 seconds about that
potentially catastrophic hurricane in
Florida. It turns out it appears that
Milton
>> Hurricane Milton of Hurricane Milton
>> Milton a catastrophic category 3
hurricane has just made landfall near
Siesta Key, Florida. Now this is a
life-threatening situation with
officials stressing if you did not get
out, you need to be sheltering in place
right now. Good evening tonight from
Florida where Hurricane Milton has left
a devastating path of destruction. And
it wasn't just the hurricane. It was the
deadly tornado spawned by this system.
Well, more than three dozen reported
tornadoes. Many of the streets here in
Tampa are still lined with debris. All
of this left over from Hurricane Helen.
>> The roof of Tropicana Field, home of the
Tampa Bay Rays, shredded. Parts of the
roof ripped off.
>> Here, the devastation across this state.
The rescue efforts still underway at
this hour. and the families who told me
here they are grateful they survived
this.
>> Yeah. Everything that you just saw that
happened exactly a year and a week ago.
And uh believe it or not, I actually
lived through both of those hurricanes.
I wanted to set the stage here and just
kind of give some context as to why it's
important for us to take a look at
aerial data in instances like this. But
before we get into the actual like drone
side of things, I want to give you guys
some of the statistics and really what
happened during that time given I was
actually physically there. I actually
missed a lot of events last year because
of this event that happened last year.
So the first three photos that you guys
see at the top, this here is uh my
parents backyard. I actually stayed with
them for the first hurricane for
Hurricane Helen and we had about 8 to 12
feet of flooding uh that came through.
Flooded the entire garage. This was our
neighbor right next door to us. They
were actually trapped up there
throughout the middle of the night.
There had about 5 feet of water inside
of the first level there. Um and then
just kind of a funny photo of me here on
the right hand side taking my dog out
for a walk waiting through water that
was up to my knees here. all of these
other photos here on the bottom. These
are from my friends, my neighbors and
surrounding areas. So, you know, it's
one thing to see all of this stuff
happen, you know, whether it's on your
phone or through news, but going through
this was actually a very scary time.
Now, I'm a Florida native. I've been
there for a very long time, so
hurricanes are nothing new to me, but
this is probably one of the biggest
devastations that I have ever gone
through.
Again, here's a few other videos that uh
happened. just took from again this one
here is from my parents backyard. This
is my father and I. We were moving
trucks and these are our neighbors just
moving their vehicles out because we
were taking on just so much water so
quickly and this happened through the uh
the power of Helen which this was a
category 4 hurricane about 140 mph of uh
sustained winds brought about 30 in of
rainfall. Now, where I got a ton of
flooding due to a ton of the winds
pushing the water up on shore,
Asheville, North Carolina, which is
about 600 700 miles north of where I'm
at in Florida, they had devastating up
to 30 feet of flooding that completely
wiped out entire towns, neighborhoods,
and a lot of communities. This is
actually one of the photos of an area
that entire road right here completely
gone.
14 days later, we had Hurricane Milton
rip through. This one was a bit more
devastating on the wind side. So, the
first side was all water damage that we
had to deal with. The second end of it
was Hurricane Milton. So, again, these
are all photos of the disasters that
happened in my local communities.
This one was up to a category 5 at one
point. By the time it made landfall,
dropped down to a category 3. Again,
this is 14 days after we had 126 tornado
warnings. I don't know if anyone here
has been through any natural disasters,
but it is not a fun thing to go through.
And once again, we also had to deal with
a lot of flooding that these hurricanes
brought through.
So, Florida and hurricanes, I tell
people this is like peanut butter and
jelly. This is just the last four years
of hurricanes that we've dealt with.
Luckily enough, we're actually about
half we're almost finished with our
hurricane season in the southeast of the
United States. So, we haven't had any
major hurricanes since Hurricane Milton
from last year.
So, about me, why why am I on the stage?
Why am I talking about these hurricanes
and drones? I've been in the UAS
industry for well over a decade. I've
carried out well over 7,000 projects all
across the United States, actually all
across the world. And uh where my
following comes into relevance is I like
to teach the application side of drones.
Not just for taking fun photos and
videos of you know maybe kids playing at
the beach or whatever. I like to teach
the actual application in a commercial
and industrial use case.
Uh every year I generate about two and a
half to three million views on my uh
YouTube channel and I've got well over
10,000 students globally who have gone
through my programs who have helped be
able to take the technology and
implement it into multiple different use
cases. So I'm very much an education
first uh when it comes to integrating
technology some of the workshops that
I've hosted.
So, let's talk about the drones and
hurricane side. And actually, I think
the presentation beforehand uh is very
relevant, right? Using satellite data
for uh natural disasters, right?
Real-time response. Well, with drones,
you're able to get very quick
deployments
uh across a wide area without having to
deploy multi-million dollar systems.
So actually during right after hurricane
Helen hit uh there's a few companies
whether they were private um or state
funded agencies that went out and
deployed way well over 850 drone
missions in Helen. Uh this is up in the
North Carolina area. So the areas of
impact was allowed for search and
rescue, asset assessment and delivery of
supplies. I think three very crucial
needs especially in a time of desperate
calls.
where the story is uh pretty cool. These
are actually two of my students. These
are my two of the youngest students that
I have that I've gone through my
program. And they were about a thousand
miles away right after Helen hit. They
drove 1,000 miles, went straight to uh
North Carolina and went out and actually
mapped a part of one of the roads that
completely washed away.
The statistic is there's about 400 roads
that were washed away. We had major
interstates that were completely
inaccessible. So, a big portion of the
state was completely cut off from access
from search and rescue, uh, from first
responders, from even basic supplies.
So, it was an incredible effort from our
communities, from my students to go out
and be able to collect this kind of data
and allow for very rapid response uh, of
the data that they collected. Uh,
something that's cool, if you guys want
to take a look, they were able to share
a data set to me. You guys can scan this
um and you're able to look at the point
cloud that was generated from one of the
washed out roads.
Again, they were able to collect this
data in about half an hour, generate a
full model both on a 2D orthamosaic and
a 3D model, which ultimately allowed
first responders and uh law enforcement
to go and deploy very quickly without
having to show up and figure out, oh,
you know, we can't access this area
because we don't have the vehicles.
Well, guess what? They're now a armed
with the uh visual aid to be able to
make those split-second decisions,
especially in a time of need when there
was no power. There was no way to
communicate. Phones were practically
useless. So imagine trying to get help
when you can't even ask for help.
Now I know one of the biggest focuses of
this uh conference has to go around with
high accuracy, right? Centimeter,
millimeter precision.
This here, we didn't care about that. We
just need to be able to collect data
very quickly to be able to display and
be able to make split-second decisions.
Another company that came into effect,
this is an American company, Skyo.
They're a drone manufacturer. And this
was actually one of the biggest uh
catastrophes in uh actually about 30
minutes from where I live. A massive
crane fell down and collapsed on a
building. Luckily, nobody was injured,
but they were able to deploy a drone and
create a 3D model same day. They went
and captured 1300 photos in about 37
minutes, ran it through a quick uh 3D
processing, and were able to give it
again to law enforcement and first
responders to be able to make very
split-second decisions on whether they
needed to send first aid or bring out uh
let's say an architect or an engineer to
assess the problem uh more in depth. So
this is uh just one example of the model
and then this is a fly through uh of the
entire actually the live capture of the
drone collecting data in real time.
These are some other instances of drones
being used. So uh this is a probably
pretty famous. I don't know if anyone
here has seen this but we have a
baseball team in Florida called the
Tampa Bay Rays. And we have this uh
infamous uh stadium that has a bunch of
well used to be cloth, but this got
entirely ripped apart. And this was
actually one of the FEMA uh shelters
overnight when Hurricane Milton ripped
through. This was supposed to house
about I think like 3,000 people. They
couldn't even use this as a shelter. So,
there are a lot of people in desperate
need of a place to stay.
Well, they're able to deploy the drone
again very quickly to assess the damages
and make real-time decisions on where to
relocate people as opposed to waiting
weeks or months.
And then what we have here in the top
right hand corner, this was one of the
bridges again if you remember earlier on
I was talking about how they had 30 feet
of flooding
they would have used. I mean, you can
see the damage uh what came through.
Entire neighborhoods completely washed
washed away
where they also used drones. Uh Duke
Energy is a big energy company that I
have in the state of Florida. Like I
said, there was 128 tornado warnings. We
had several that actually made impact
and this is one that ripped through in a
time where we need power, right? We all
are connected. We all need to charge
devices. We all need to have
connectivity. Again, they're able to
deploy drones to make a quick assessment
and understand the damage in close to
real time to be able to figure out what
they need to do to uh to solve the
problem. And again, none of this stuff
has to do with high accuracy. It's just
more of having that visual intelligence
that allows you to make those real-time
decisions.
Now, this one here hits a little bit
closer to home for me. Um, I have a bit
of an emotional attachment to this given
this was a community that was about 15
minutes from where I live. Uh my
parents, they own a few different uh
residential properties here. And my dad
was getting calls in the middle of the
night saying, "Hey, I've got water up to
my knees. There's no power. There was no
cell towers. There's no way for them to
really be able to get first responders
uh out there." I say they made a call.
This is made a call before we lost power
for an entire week. I went out the next
day with whatever drone that I had and I
captured this video out here. This is
actually the property that my parents
own. Some of the water went away, but it
actually took three days for two and a
half feet of water to disperse.
Uh we are one of the biggest counties in
Florida and we had 135 disabled people
just in this community right here that
needed help. With the aerial
intelligence that my team and several of
my other students, law enforcement, and
first responders were able to gather,
collect, they're able to make again
those split-second decisions. That is
the difference between life or death and
especially in a community like this
where not a lot of them have access to
uh aid right this here allowed for the
first responders to get out there very
quickly and save lives and I think
that's what's you know the most
important thing here right doesn't
matter how accurate the data is in this
instance it mattered if we could save a
life or not
I have a scan uh if you wanted to take a
look at just the uh the Gaussian splat
that I created that was one of the
models that I was able to provide from
this area here.
So what is our impact from this or at
least the impact that I like to try and
make within the industry? I like to
share the ideas. I like to share the
technology, right? I like to challenge
others to be able to implement it in not
so conventional ways. Again, I think we
think about having high precision
accuracy when it comes to surveying and
mapping, but in this instance, we just
needed to get easily accessible data.
And I like to inspire, right? There's a
lot of young professionals coming into
this industry. Whether they're doing the
surveying, whether they're doing the
mapping,
there's not one way to do all of this.
There's so many different applications
that you can leverage with this
technology.
So, with that, I do appreciate you guys
sitting here. If you want to learn a
little bit more about me, please follow
me on LinkedIn. And if you want to see
some of the educational material that I
provide to the industry, I have a
YouTube channel almost there at a
100,000 subscribers. And um it's been
fun. It's been fun being able to teach,
to educate, to inspire, uh, whether
you've been in the industry before or
this is a new tool that you're looking
to leverage. So, again, thank you guys.