Flying into the hurricane: A case study of UAV use in damage assessment during the 2017 hurricanes in Texas and Florida

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones have been used by disaster relief organizations in the United States since 2005. However, their place in the disaster response ecosystem—the standardization, utility, ethical, and legal challenges of drone use—remains largely unstudied. This case series describes how UAVs were used by two teams of responders for damage assessment purposes during the 2017 southeastern US Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Data streams ranged from social media, direct observation, participant-observation and semi-directed interviews. Qualitative analysis was performed for thematic content derived from field observation and from post-hoc interviews. Outcomes of the qualitative analysis emphasize the barriers to deploying drones in the disaster context, their tactical implementation, programmatic integration, and ethical and legal challenges. These observations lay the groundwork for both future research on the utilization of drones and the prudent and ethical implementation of programs that employ drones in post-disaster settings.