Drones are known for helping first responders search for lost and missing persons and victims of natural disasters, but few of those life-saving efforts are filmed in their entirety like the one in China’s Henan province was yesterday.  The vehicle of a young Chinese couple was almost completely-submerged in raging floodwaters and the pair could do nothing but stand helplessly by as the waters continued to rise, desperately hoping that someone would try to rescue them.

A video shot by a witness captured their panicked faces in close up before first-responders arrived.  Their vehicle was barely visible above the water’s surface and seemed like it might slip into the dark undercurrent at any moment.  But luckily help did arrive in time.

The rescue effort turned out to be a combined effort of multiple persons and their machines:  A drone and a crane.  Hovering overhead, the drones dropped a pair of life vests to the trapped couple and also strung ropes from one side of the river to the other as safety lines.  A huge crane was then called in to lift each member of the couple to dry land.  The entire operation, broadcast on CCTV,  lasted three hours.

Drones have been used effectively during flooding in Henan before:  In July 2021, the worst flood in the province’s history struck, devastating homes and buildings and leaving many of its 99 million residents without electricity  The local government deployed drones to aid emergency communications, restore power and conduct damage assessments in areas affected by the inundation.

But yesterday’s heroic rescue mission may have been unprecedented.

China has not yet released data on the dead and displaced from the latest flooding, which continues into its third week.  Smaller floods also occurred in the province in 2011 and again last year.  The entire central Chinese region and part of the south have long been considered “flood-prone.”

In 2021, at least 71 people died during the weeks-long flooding and subsequent landslides, many of them trapped in their homes or even in subways, and others swept away as local city streets were transformed into raging rivers.  Hundreds of thousands of the province’s residents were displaced.

The Chinese government continues to implement new precautionary measures, including the building of new dams and other flood-control structures   But periodic inundations, prompted by typhoons and exacerbated by the effects of climate change, continue in Henan and surrounding areas unabated, with deadly consequences.

Fortunately, quick thinking and a rescue effort aided by drones allowed one lucky couple in Henan to escape the worst yesterday.