Wainfleet Flooding: Police Drone Monitoring

Late last week, the equivalent of about two months’ rain fell in two days, forcing 1,000 people out of their homes – about half the population – and flooding nearly 130 properties in the Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, UK.

As the rain fell, it became crucial to the Environment Agency and the Emergency Services to map the flooding and monitor the River Steeping. The River broke its banks on Wednesday 12th June.

More than 340 tonnes of ballast were dropped by RAF helicopters to shore up a breach in the wall of the River Steeping after it burst its banks on Wednesday.

High-volume pumps were deployed by the Environment Agency to move the water away from the local area and into the catchment area for the River Haven near Boston.

However, more rain is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday and the MET Office has issued a yellow weather warning.

Lincolnshire Police have operated drones for a few years now, to support their more traditional means of policing Lincolnshire. They have been used to great effect, locating missing persons, finding those who run from RTCs, assisting with crowd dynamics, burglaries, and more. They also have thermal imaging capabilities, which are ideal for night flying too. They are also conducting Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) training for many scenarios too.

On June 15th at 16:15, an Emergency Restriction of Flight was put in place in the area of Wainfleet and Thorpe Saint Peters from the surface to 2000ft. This applied to all manned and unmanned aircraft. The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority were able to put this into effect with only 30 minutes warning. Those needed to support the operation were given authority to fly, while all others were ordered to stay away to ensure the safety and smooth running of the operation.  We will see these quick notice NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) appear more often as drones usage increases too.

The Linolnshire Police Operators monitored the situation all through the night and all the next day.  The ERF was lifted on Monday 17th June at 11am.

Lincolnshire Police use the Aeryon R60 Skyranger, which – as you may have worked out – can fly in the rain and relatively high winds.

 

While much of this could have been done by helicopter, and they were used by the RAF to deposit the sandbags, drones offer a highly cost effective means to monitoring, meaning resources are stretched further to provide better support to the people of Lincolnshire.

 

Congratulations to a well run operation and thank you for all your hard work.  #DronesForGood

 

Lincolnshire Police Drones Twitter: @LincsCOPter