Missouri Wing Operates Drones for Urban Earthquake Damage Exercise
Missouri Wing members flew a pair of small unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, helping conduct simulated building damage during a multiday, multi-agency Dense Urban Terrain Exercise in downtown St. Louis.
Facilitated by the Michigan National Guard’s Task Force 46 in cooperation with the Missouri National Guard, the three-day training event allowed local and military emergency responders to coordinate, deploy, and mitigate dangerous scenarios set in the days after a catastrophic disaster.
Occurring in the vicinity of St. Louis’ Busch Stadium and the Missouri River between Grafton and St. Charles, the exercise involved reconnaissance, urban search and rescue, mass casualty decontamination, and structural and infrastructure damage assessment following a simulated 8.4 magnitude earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. More than 40 agencies participated.
“Our two CAP sUAS teams responded to requests for sUAS support in assessing the roofs and sides of buildings with suspected damage, using simulated images to show what the sUASes were capable of providing,” said Lt. Col. Keith Monteith, air operations branch director for the CAP mission.
The Missouri Wing drone teams, which also included one member of the Illinois Wing, worked directly with the Missouri Structural Assessment and Visual Evaluation (SAVE) coalition. SAVE is a group of volunteer engineers, architects, building inspectors, and other trained professionals that assists the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency with building damage inspections.
SAVE volunteers are trained to move quickly after a disaster to determine which buildings are safe to use and which should be evacuated.
Over a five-hour period the first day of the exercise, 14 SAVE teams evaluated a total of 212 structures using digital technology that allowed for live reporting of results to their operations center.
The Missouri Wing drones were used to capture virtually aerial views of simulated damaged buildings to aid in the teams’ rapid evaluations. Because of exercise restrictions, no actual drone flights occurred.
“As with all of our mission capabilities, CAP's sUAS capabilities are an asset available for agencies seeking resources to respond in the event of a disaster,” said Maj. Sam Samarasinghe, incident commander for the CAP mission.
“Our ability to work with different agencies in the sphere of disaster relief will ensure continued relevance for CAP as new technologies come online and we are able to expand our offerings. This recent exercise with SAVE is just one example.”
The Missouri Wing is an active participant in the state’s New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquake plan and participates regularly in earthquake training missions.
by Lt. Col. David Miller
Director of Public Affairs
