CLEVELAND, Ga. — Searching for a lost hiker in the North Georgia mountains around Cleveland and Helen just got easier. White County Public Safety has put a new drone into service that can spot body heat through darkness, smoke and thick tree cover.
The county paid for it with Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax money that county commissioners signed off on. Public Safety Director David Murphy framed the purchase as a direct payoff for the sales tax voters approved, and said it gives crews a quicker and safer way to locate people in trouble.
The aircraft replaces older county drones and brings three big upgrades. Its FLIR thermal camera is sharper, it carries a live loudspeaker so crews can talk a stranded person through what to do before anyone reaches them, and it can keep flying in the rain, which used to ground the earlier models.
Emergency Management Division Chief Don Strength will fly it. Any public safety agency in the county can call on it, including the departments that serve Cleveland and Helen, and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency can request it for neighboring counties.
County officials pointed to the mix of mountains, forests, rivers and a growing population as the reason. Beyond missing hikers and climbers, the drone will give commanders an overhead look at wildland and house fires, showing hot spots and access routes, and will help size up storm damage such as flooding, blocked roads and downed trees and power lines.
For visitors who come to Helen to hike the trails and tube the Chattahoochee, it means another tool in the air if a day outdoors goes wrong.
