NEW YORK (PIX11) -- When the earthquake struck New York City at 10:23 this morning, it was all hands on deck for the NYPD.
Immediately, hundreds of code calls for unusual incidents came in.
The NYPD launched drones from the NYPD harbor patrol boats to make sure the city’s bridges remained structurally safe.
Two members of the technical assistance response unit known as Taru launched a Sky Dio X-10 drone.
Police officer Victor Mevo and Detective Eric Cassidy are hoping this drone will reveal any possible weakness in the infrastructure of the more than 140-year-old Brooklyn Bridge following the 4.8 magnitude earthquake.
“The drones are scanning the bridges looking for loose bricks or cables that may be loose that catch their eye,” NYPD Deputy Police Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry told PIX11 News.
This drone video is being streamed back to the joint operations center where more than 60 police officers will look even more closely at the drone footage, looking for anything that looks weakened by the 10:23 am earthquake.
“Their job is to see any abnormalities after the earthquakes,” Daughtry said.
But it is not only drone footage, immediately following the earthquake, the NYPD sent out their aviation unit as well to see if from the sky if there were any telltale signs of trouble.
But these drones will be the best way, they say, to examine the underbelly of the bridges to look for possible structural problems.
“It was all hands on deck, and we will keep looking to see if there is anything structurally unsound using these drones,” Daughtry said.
These drones were being used on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, Whitestone, Throggs Neck and Verrazano bridges.
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