New York City emergency management officials are turning high-tech, using drones to warn residents about potential threatening weather.

Gone is the bullhorn. Instead, New York City emergency management officials have turned high-tech, using drones to warn residents about potential threatening weather.

With a buzzing sound in the background, a drone equipped with a loudspeaker flies over homes warning people who live in basement or ground-floor apartments about impending heavy rains.

“Be prepared to leave your location,” said the voice from the sky in footage released Tuesday by the city’s emergency management agency. “If flooding occurs, do not hesitate.”

  • SGGeorwell@lemmy.world
    20·
    10 months ago

    “A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies - the chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure.”

  • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    16·
    10 months ago

    Is the existing emergency alert system not sufficient? It already activates TV, radio, and cell phones.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      10 months ago

      Not to mention, what’s wrong with plain old sirens on poles? I refuse to believe that drones are somehow cheaper to buy/operate/maintain.

      • Today@lemmy.world
        3·
        10 months ago

        In Dallas, our sirens don’t mean tornado; they mean go indoors to avoid large hail or high winds. It’s crazy confusing for people who don’t know, go hide in their bathrooms, and then get pissed off when there’s no tornado. An alternate/backup method would be good (voice or different siren?) but I’m not sure a drone can tolerate a severe weather situation.

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
      7·
      10 months ago

      My tinfoil hat theory is that Drones are far better at mass surveillance than current emergency alert systems, so while the advantage over the existing emergency alert system is probably negligible - it opens the door for people accepting having drones everywhere and constantly overhead which is the real goal.

      For a second layer of tinfoil, having a strong drone presence (production, infrastructure, technology) in the economy seems like it will be very useful for future wars. Whoever has the largest and smartest swarm wins

    • ggppjj@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      We can assume an amount of people in NYC that have no access to any of those.

      It’s not a bad supplement to existing systems.

  • clearedtoland@lemmy.worldEnglish
    121·
    10 months ago

    We’re really bringing the most dystopian science fiction to life, aren’t we? Does art imitate life or…?