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The Blair County Department of Emergency Services is planning to create a drone program that would likely resemble one that has been established in Cambria County, according to officials at the most recent meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee.
Drones equipped with GPS, cameras, lights, loudspeakers and heat sensors could help monitor flooding, locate dementia patients and fugitive suspects in the woods or the dark and help officials get an overview of train derailments, according to Mark Taylor, director of the county department and LEPC member.
The cost to start the program could be about $30,000, but his department is still looking at prices, Taylor said.
The county has access to drones now, but it would be far more efficient and generally quicker to bring a drone into action if the county had its own fleet, he said, noting it would likely be necessary to get more than one.
A member of his department is licensed as a pilot, but there would need to be more than one pilot, Taylor said.
Cambria County has shared information on how it got its program up and running, according to Jeff Farber, emergency management and hazmat planner for the department.
Drones are a tool that can be used in emergencies and also every day, Farber said.
Cambria has three drones and six pilots, said Art Martynuska, Cambria's emergency management director.
The county uses drones for "a myriad of things," Martynuska said.
In addition to search and rescue, it uses them for pre-planning of ecology projects, keeping tabs on large-attendance events, traffic monitoring for such events, safety monitoring when issuing arrest warrants, pre-planning for fire responses in large buildings, construction inspections, inspections of blighted buildings for views that would be dangerous to access otherwise and crop surveys in farm fields, Martynuska said.
The county used a drone to identify a plume of acid mine drainage in a stream, using the drone's temperature sensor, which worked because of a difference in the temperature of the acid drainage versus the temperature of the regular flow, he said.
It used a drone to determine silt levels in a stream in Patton after removal of a dam, he said.
Thermal imaging is useful for tracking lost people or fleeing suspects, he said.
Videos taken from the drones can be livestreamed, he added.
The program started with a $20,000 grant, according to Martynuska.
It has taken $10,000 to $15,000 to maintain it, he said, adding Cambria is more than willing to help Blair establish a program.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.