Hopkinsville company’s drone pilots are locating people stranded by Hurricane Helene

Three drone pilots for a Hopkinsville-based company have become a lifeline for people stranded in remote areas of North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.

“People have lost their livelihoods out here,” Jeff Clack said Thursday afternoon in a phone interview with Hoptown Chronicle. “They’ve lost family members. They’ve lost everything that they know on this planet. Everything that they have in life is gone.”

Clack, who is from Florida, is working with pilots from Alabama and Minnesota. All three are employees of Bestway Ag. The company manufactures and sells agriculture spraying and liquid hauling equipment. Headquartered in Hopkinsville, it also sells drones.

The drones that Bestway sells would normally be used to map fields, check crop health and spray crops, said Danny Vowell, the company’s marketing manager. But the drones also have capabilities that make them useful in a natural disaster. Thermal imaging allows the pilots to find people otherwise hidden under dense tree cover and inside their houses.

Clack and his co-workers arrived in North Carolina shortly after the storm struck. They have been working day and night, he said, and share a travel trailer that a friend in Florida loaned him.

They’ve been able to locate more than a hundred people. In each case, they use a recorded message on a reconnaissance drone to ask questions about whether people need food, water and medicine. If they do, a larger drone capable of lifting up to 230 pounds will follow and make a supply drop.

People are stranded because flooding and mudslides destroyed numerous roads and tore out bridges.

“We’re just trying to get people some relief,” said Clack.

The pilots coordinate with local emergency responders. Vowell said they were able to begin searching immediately because the Federation Aviation Administration authorized emergency registration paperwork for the drones.

The work feels meaningful, said Clack.

“It is emotional … there is a profound sense of accomplishment when I can just help people and do God’s work out here, and get them the supplies they need to keep pushing on and give them hope,” he said. “We know they are there. They know we are coming.”

Bestway, established by David Barbee, is headquartered in Hopkinsville and has locations in North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas and Oregon.