Alachua County Emergency Management, in coordination with Alachua County Fire Rescue’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) team, will conduct an exercise of the UAV on Wednesday, May 3, 2017, from 9 a.m. to noon. The exercise is in the fleet yard at the Alachua County Public Works Headquarter (5620 N.W. 120th Lane, Gainesville). This exercise will better prepare teams from multiple agencies to combine their equipment and assets efficiently and effectively assist first responders in disaster situations. It is not open to the public, but the media is invited to cover the event.
The UAV Team will fly in a simulated disaster area, taking photos and mapping the simulated damages, and then this data will be uploaded to equipment in the Mobile Incident Mapping Unit (“GIS Trailer”) for data analysis. This coordination between resources will be the result of multiple agencies working together to develop materials first responders can immediately use in disaster situations.
The UAV Team has been deployed twice for actual brush fires in Alachua County and can assist in brush fires, floods, missing persons searches, and damage assessments. The GIS Trailer has been used multiple times throughout Florida in the past several years, most recently in Nassau County for a wildfire.
For more information, contact Alachua County Emergency Management Director John Shaw at 352-318-0747.