Natural Disasters Captured in Drone Videos

Top contributor ugurevin recorded this heartbreaking aerial footage from Turkey in the wake of a pair of powerful earthquakes which caused devastation across the southeastern part of the country as well as in neighboring Syria.  The quakes, which hit within nine hours of each other on February 6, 2023, killed at least 44,000 people as of February 16, a figure which was expected to continue to rise.  The main quake, which struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, was one of the stongest ever recorded in the Middle East.  

AirVuz contributor Abdiel8030 brings us this haunting drone video from Fort Myers Beach, Florida about a month after this beach community along with much of Florida's Gulf Coast was ravaged by Hurricane Ian late September of 2022.  The Category 4 storm slammed into the coast on September 28, just north of Fort Myers and a bit south of the original expected landfall.  With 120 mph winds, the storm caused nearly 150 fatalities in Florida alone, in addition to thousands of injuries and estimated property damage of at least $50 billion.  

One of the ironies of the beauty of the great USA state of California is how fragile it all is.  Earthquakes, mudslides, and forest fires regularly visit devastation on the Golden State.  In this video, top contributor and pilot Douglas Thron used a drone to show the devastation of local homes in the Santa Rosa area, north of San Francisco, from a wildfire which raged out of control for days during the month of October, 2017.  This production was shared by many media outlets across the country. 

In a land full of rainforests and mountains, mudslides and floodings are an all-too-common occurrence in Colombia. In this poignant film, Alejandrogutierrezlonga flies over the still-standing historic ruins of Gramalote, Colombia, abandoned after devastating mudslides and floods. The somber footage captures the dignity of the once beautiful structures that have, at least for now, escaped total destruction. The city is located in North Santander, one of the 32 departments (states) into which Colombia is divided.

In August, 2017, Hurricane Harvey ended a twelve year period where no hurricane hit the United States  mainland.  The Category 4 storm made landfall near the border between the states of Texas and Louisiana and caused over $125 billion in damage, a figure which was roughly comparable in severity to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  In this drone video by AirVuz contributor nelsonaerialpros, you'll see the damage caused by the massive storm as it moved inland, to a small town in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina.

Hurricane Maria devastated large areas around the Caribbean Sea in late 2017.  Amongst the hardest-hit areas was the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a US territory which bore the brunt of the historic storm.  The island saw some of the worst devastations from a natural disaster ever visited on US soil, with over a thousand people killed and some areas enduring months without power.  In this video, content creator and drone pilot Global Air Media shows how drone mapping was used in disaster recovery. 

Contributor and drone pilot AerialRhianna was able to aerially capture an eruption of Mt. Sinabung, a very active volcano in the north-central part of the gigantic island of Sumatra in Indonesia.  After four centuries of dormancy, the volcano began erupting again in 2010.  This video was filmed during an eruption event in 2013, which caused the evacuation of almost 4,000 people.  There were further eruptions in 2014 and 2016;  the latter case, an eruption killed seven people who were in the area.  

Contributor and drone pilot @surf.the.sky shares aerial footage of tropical storm Rosita taking over a beach on the Catanduanes Island in the Philippines.  It's part of the Bicol region, off the southeastern part of Luzon, the most populous island in the country.  The relaxing vibe of the island is suddenly shaken when a violent wave sweeps in, flooding the entire beach full of vacationers and grass covered huts. How do things turn out in the aftermath of Rosita? Keep watching to see for yourself.

In the fall of 2018, destruction and tragedy came in the form of blazes when the Woolsey wildfire swept through areas of the Los Angeles and Ventura counties in California.  Contributor jayxlamar documented with his drone how the inferno completely ravaged a residential area .  The aerial footage reveals that all that remains are swimming pools, chimneys, and a few lucky properties that were untouched.

Top contributor Douglas Thron has gained international recognition for his use of drone photography and video to visually convey the tragedy of natural disasters.  In this video, his skills are put to use in the Bahamas, parts of which were devastated by Hurricane Dorian when one of history's most powerful storms ripped through the islands in August of 2019.  In this case, his drones served an additional purpose - they were used to find rescue dogs that were regularly becoming trapped in the wreckage.  

Sfdrones created this amazing (if haunting) drone video of San Francisco choked in smoke from nearby wildfires.  As the sun struggles to fight through the smoke, you will see some of the most familiar (and beautiful) sights of the city (including the Financial District and Rincon Park) from a completely different perspective.  The most chilling footage shows the new Salesforce Tower, now the tallest building in the city, looming menacingly in the distance.  The smoke triggered major air quality alerts.  

AirVuz contributor zurandenis brings us this heartbreaking drone video of the flooding which devastated parts of Slovenia in August of 2023.  Considered the worst natural disaster to hit Slovenia since it became independent following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990's, the floods caused widespread damage throughout the country.  At least six people were killed and property damage was estimated at upwards of half a billion US dollars, leading to calls for assistance from the European Union and the NATO alliance.  

In early March of 2020, the central part of the USA state of Tennessee was devastated by a series that ripped through the area east of Nashville.  Due in part to weather forecasting errors, the giant storm descended on the state without sufficient warning.  At least two dozen were killed and thousands of structures were damaged in one of the state's most deadly natural disasters.  AirVuz contributor DereksAerial captured this aerial footage of the devastation, which was used to solicit assistance to aid the region in its recovery.

Contributor and pilot Abstract Aerial Art captured the devastation from severe winds near Lago di Carezza (Karersee) in northeastern italy.  The lake is near the town of Welschnofen in the South Tyrol province, part of the Trentino Alto Adige region.  As you will see in the video, the area suffered massive tree damage from a storm that produced extreme winds which wreaked havoc on vast forested areas.  It will likely take centuries for this area to repair the damage caused in just a few short hours.

Top contributor Bumble Bee Productions brings us this haunting drone video of Ft. Myers, Florida, eight months following the devastation of the city by Hurricane Ian in September of 2022.  The massive storm, which had barely "weakened" to a Category 4 hurricane shortly before making landfall on one of the city's Gulf of Mexico barrier islands, was one history's costliest weather disasters and the deadliest to hit Florida in over 75 years; of the 150 confirmed Florida fatalities, the majority occurred in the area around Fort Myers.  

Hurricane Michael struck the coast of Florida's "panhandle" on the Gulf of Mexico in early October, 2018, the first Category 5 storm to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.  The massive hurricane caused at least 74 deaths, most of which were in the USA and the balance in Central America, as well as an estimated $25 billion in property damage and other economic losses.  You can see the devastation wrought by the storm in this excellent piece from contributor 8 Fifty Productions.  

AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) pilot Tushevs Aerials was able to create this rather haunting FPV mini-tour of New York City in the early summer of 2023 when the city was inundated with smoke from Canadian forest fires.  The smoke, which turned the sky into an orange-yellow color, resulted in New York having the worst air quality in the world of any major city in early June.  It triggered numerous air quality alerts which affected nearly 130 million people in the highly populated Northeastern USA.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot Bumble Bee Productions brings us this excellent drone video of Lake Charles, Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Laura.  The Category 4 monster made landfall near the town of Cameron (just south of Lake Charles) on August 27, 2020, causing massive devastation across southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas.  Lake Charles, one of the largest cities in the direct path of the hurricane, was particularly hard hit.  Wind gusts at the Lake Charles Regional Airport reached over 200 km/hour (almost 130 mph).  

A small town in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina in the USA was hit by a major flood in October, 2017.  Professional drone pilot and contributor Jordan Nelson used a drone to chronicle the devastation wreaked on this small town.  He has won several drone film festivals, and has been an advocate of using UAV's to document natural disasters.  

In this drone video, contributor and pilot Drono del Aire takes you around the province of Manabi, Ecuador as it recovered from a devastating earthquake in April, 2016.  The quake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale, had an epicenter in the sparsely populated Esmeraldas Province, which is in the northwest corner of the country.  The province of Manabi, which lies immediately to its south and has roughly 3x the population, saw extensive damage.  The quake killed nearly 700 and injured thousands more.   

AirVūz contributor and drone pilot Umgapa Sky created this haunting aerial video of Santa Cruz, California as the city was engulfed with ash and smoke from raging forest fires in the late summer of 2020.   Located at the northern end of Monterey Bay, about 120 km (around 75 mi.) south of San Francisco, the beach community found itself in the midst of one of the worst wildfire seasons in decades.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro drone, this video was a Drone Video of the Week Finalist in September of 2020. 

AirVuz contributor and pilot Jordan Nelson is a professional drone pilot based in North Carolina, in the Southeastern USA. His company, Nelson Aerial Productions, offers drone services of all shapes and sizes. One of his specialties is using drones to chronicle and otherwise assist with natural disasters.  In this episode, host Tyler Mason catches up with Jordan to talk about his aerial video work, and his desire to use drones to both document natural disasters and to help their victims.  

This video by contributor and drone pilot Hamdani captures the Indonesian island of Lombok as it recovered from a powerful earthquake in 2018.   The main shock, which occurred on August 5, 2018, registered a 7.0 on the Richter Scale.  It was preceded and succeeded by quakes in the 6+ range.  The epicenter was near a small town in the North Lombok Regency, in the northern part of the island.  Lombok is the principal island of the West Nusa Tengarra region, immediately east of Bali in southern Indonesia.  

New contributor elstevedore brings us this us this fascinating aerial mini-documentary about the series of deadly wildfires that have torn through California in recent years.  Shot almost entirely with drones, the piece will take you over some of these scenes of devastation.  Areas covered in the video include the town of Santa Rosa, where nearly two dozen people were killed and over a thousand homes destroyed by the Stubbs Fire in late 2017; the Woolsey Fire in LA and Ventura Counties in late 2018; and more.