City of Whiteville receives grant money to help improve drones’ capabilities

WHITEVILLE, N.C. (WECT) - The City of Whiteville has grant money on the way to help improve its use of drones for critical operations.

Whiteville’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Ops Department currently uses the drones to survey fires, crime scenes, and assist in rescue efforts.

Hal Lowder of Whiteville Emergency Services says the new grant will help expand the UAV Department’s capabilities in understanding flooding in the area and it will be a game-changer for Whiteville.

“It gives us the ability I can put in a program and it will map an area,” Lowder said. “It’ll map my swamp, it’ll map my stream, and take a series of photographs as we go, and we can use that for reporting and data collection and data analysis.”

Copyright 2022 WECT. All rights reserved.