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
    31·
    3 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
    23·
    3 months ago

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

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      3 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.

      • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
        32·
        3 months ago

        what’s wrong with plain old sirens on poles?

        No cameras on them and they don’t normalize the idea of police drones buzzing around your neighborhood.

      • Today@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 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.

        • piccolo@ani.socialEnglish
          3·
          3 months ago

          Or if you live near a nuclear plant, people think the airens are for tornados… nope, if you hear these, you ran away!

      • finley@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        because if you set off a siren like that, all of the Orthodox Jews will assume its the Sabbath and run home.

        see, they already do this every Friday just before sundown to mark the beginning of the Sabbath, so…

        edit: this may just be limited to Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
      9·
      3 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

      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        For slightly less tinfoil haberdashery, it could be used to more rapidly locate people during a weather disaster, identify what areas are most heavily impacted in real-time, and redirect emergency services in case of, say, debris blocking a road.

        This is of course assuming it’s not the cheapest shit the highest bidder offers (which it probably will be) that disintegrates during a light rain.

    • Bone@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 months ago

      No. You need the government flying machines outside your window to let you know about your freedoms.

    • ggppjj@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 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
    141·
    3 months ago

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

    • Skua@kbin.earth
      41·
      3 months ago

      Warning people that are in danger from incoming dangerous weather seems like a good idea to me. We need to stop fucking up the climate to reduce the amount of dangerous weather, yes, but it’s sensible to protect people from it until we do that (and of course, even if we never did anything to change the climate, sometimes it would still be dangerous)

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        5·
        3 months ago

        I think the worry here is that if they are already using drones to monitor weather, what else are they using drones to monitor?

        I don’t live anywhere near NYC, but I do know Adams was a cop, so I wouldn’t trust him to just use city drones for helpful reasons.

        • Synthuir@lemmy.ml
          1·
          3 months ago

          Drones have been banned in the city for years. Iirc the city uses anti-drone drones occasionally, but I’ve literally never seen one overhead, be it personal, commercial, or governmental.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            31·
            3 months ago

            Do you trust Adams enough that you think he’ll care if his own government defies that ban if he feels it’s necessary?

            • Synthuir@lemmy.ml
              11·
              3 months ago

              No, but the point is if I see a drone I know it’s a government drone and not just some hobbyist. The ban already doesn’t apply to the government, hence the weather warning drones and anti-drone drones.