Megaphones are no longer the norm. Instead, New York City emergency management officials have turned to high technology, using drones to warn residents about potential weather threats.
With a humming sound in the background, a drone equipped with a speaker flies over homes to warn people living in basements or on lower floors of impending heavy rain.
“Prepare to leave your location,” the voice from the sky said in a recording released Tuesday by the city’s emergency management agency. “If flooding occurs, do not hesitate.”
About five teams with several drones each were deployed to specific flood-prone neighborhoods. Zach Iscol, the city's emergency management commissioner, said messages were being broadcast in multiple languages and were expected to continue until weather affected drone flights.
Flash floods have been deadly for New Yorkers living in basement apartments, which can fill quickly during a deluge. Eleven people drowned in those homes in 2011, amid the rain caused by the remains of Hurricane Ida.
Drones join other forms of emergency messaging, including social media, text alerts and a system that reaches more than 2,000 community organizations across the city that serve senior citizens, people with disabilities and other groups.
“You know, we live in a bubble and we have to meet people where they are on the notifications so they can be prepared,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Tuesday.
Adams describes himself as a “tech geek” whose administration has embraced drone technology. To monitor large gatherings as well as for shark hunting on the beaches. Under his supervision, the city police department also He briefly played with using a robot to patrol the Times Square subway station, and has occasionally been deployed a robotic dog to dangerous scenes, including Manhattan Parking Lot which collapsed in 2023.