Eyes in the sky: Noxubee County EMA unveils new equipment

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – After a series of unfortunate events with missing people and severe weather, Noxubee County leaders decided they needed something more.

“We had several incidents where we had a building collapse with people on the inside, we needed to view the top of the building to map out our rescue plan,” said Noxubee County EMA Director Corey Brown.

After partnering with Winston County to use their drone to save and locate people, Noxubee County EMA Director Corey Brown says the ball got rolling for them to invest in a drone with a thermal camera to detect heat in the distance.

It also has lights to see in the dark and it is suited to fly through rough weather conditions.

“Roughly five close to 600 miles of farm and AG, woodland type area in this county,” Brown said. “So It would be a waste to get a drone without thermal. The drone will do a flyover and get a grid, and then you can hand draw an area on the drone that you want it to search.”

Search and rescue is not the only use for the drone.

“We are in tornado alley here in Noxubee County,” Brown said. “We get a lot of storm damage, and damage assessment is part of recovering from a storm. The drone plays a huge role in that because we can get an overview or a snapshot and get to areas that have too much damage for us to access by foot.”

Noxubee County Sheriff Tommy Roby said this is a huge plus for the community.

“Even if we don’t use it for search and rescue, sometimes we have big events,” Brown said. “We can put the drone up just for security reasons and see what’s going on.”

Brown said they are not doing away with searches, rescues, and damage assessments on foot. The Drone will just be another tool in assisting and making the process more efficient.

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