Disaster Response

Beyond the Buzz (Episode 13) – Disaster Response 

July 9, 2025 

Victor Meza

[0:00]–[1:20] 

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to July's Beyond the Buzz, a monthly webinar hosted by the Northern Plains UAS Test Site. We're joined today by Sadie Rudolph, who's from Enderlin, North Dakota, where a tornado recently struck her childhood hometown. She's here to share the impact the storm had on her community. 

We're also joined by Hunter Hegel, one of the Northern Plains UAS Test Site's UAS Operations Leads, who responded to Enderlin's request for drone assistance. Today we're talking about the effects of the tornado and how drones were used to help locate missing belongings and support people whose lives were devastated by the storm. Again, thank you, Sadie and Hunter, for joining us today. 

Sadie, we'll start with you. Can you tell us a little bit about the events of that weekend and why this tornado hit so close to home for you personally? 

Sadie Rudolph

[1:20]–[4:16] 

Yeah, absolutely. June 20 was the day we knew bad weather was coming. I live in West Fargo now, and I love thunderstorms, so when it's a good radar day, I'm usually watching our local meteorologists to see what's happening. We see severe weather pretty often during North Dakota summers, but you never really think it's going to hit that close to home. 

Late that night, I remember the meteorologist saying, "Enderlin, you are in severe danger. Take cover now." My heart just sank because my parents and the rest of my family still live there. I waited for the weather to pass and eventually went to bed, but the next morning I woke up with an uneasy feeling. I turned on the news and saw Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jonner giving a press conference with the Enderlin Fire Chief. 

The images they showed were almost unrecognizable. The tornado had snapped huge, well-established trees, especially around my neighbor's yard, and entire buildings had been blown away. Then they showed my childhood home. My dad and grandfather built that house with their own hands. It was an earth home built into the side of a hill, designed to help protect the family during severe weather. For years, people would say, "Oh, you live in the house built into the hill," and I'd proudly tell them my dad built it. Seeing the roof ripped off was heartbreaking. 

Later, I learned that the family living there now—the people my dad sold the home to about five years ago—credited that house with saving their lives. Tyler Fox, who lives there now, said they sheltered in the bathroom and could feel the immense pressure in their ears as the tornado hit. Hearing that really brought everything full circle for me, and that's why this tornado is so personal. 

Victor 

[4:16]–[4:27] 

Mhm. What made you think of drones when you put out that call for help? 

Sadie 

[4:27]–[5:32] 

It really came from a conversation with my aunt that following Monday. I had put a post on social media because so many people were asking how they could help. The tornado didn't actually hit the town itself—it hit the countryside—and it devastated farms and families living outside of Enderlin. Many people had lost important belongings. 

I asked my aunt, "What can people do to help?" She said, "What we really need are people to walk fields—and drones. We're looking for things. We need drones." That's when I thought about all the people I knew who flew drones for farming or photography, so I decided to put the idea out there and see if anyone was willing to help. 

Victor 

[5:32]–[5:57] 

Nice. And now moving over to Hunter, what was the Test Site's response once you saw that call for volunteers? Can you talk about how your team responded? 

Hunter 

[5:57]–[6:45] 

Yeah, certainly. So, what Sadie alluded to was that she put out that social media post, and we were fortunate enough to see that mid-afternoon, late afternoon on the 23rd. We got together with our team, and luckily it was kind of a slow operations week on our end. We worked into the night, got all of our equipment together, charged our drone batteries, and made sure our mobilization efforts would be useful. 

Then we packed everything up, and a team of about four left Grand Forks at 6:00 a.m. and headed to Enderlin. Once there, we hoped to assist with the cleanup efforts by providing damage assessments from a bird's-eye view of the areas in and around Enderlin and be as useful as possible given the situation. 

Victor 

[6:45]–[6:54] 

When you got there, what were some of the tasks that we were given? What were we looking for with that bird's-eye view? 

Hunter 

[6:54]–[7:57] 

Yep. Most importantly, there was a list of missing items that the citizens of Enderlin and the surrounding community had lost during the storm. Our main goal was to locate those items using that bird's-eye view, whether they had ended up in a creek, shelter belt, or somewhere else that would be difficult to spot from the ground. 

Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any of the missing trailers or larger items. They were either completely destroyed or well outside the areas we were searching. But the aerial perspective was still extremely valuable. With crops already ankle to knee high, it was difficult for volunteers on the ground to see debris beyond the horizon. By flying the fields quickly with a drone, we could identify debris locations and relay those coordinates to the people walking the fields or driving side-by-sides, making the cleanup process much more efficient. 

Victor 

[7:57]–[8:27] 

That's great. 

Sadie, back over to you. After all the volunteers and drone pilots came out to help—because we weren't the only ones that responded; I believe there were about 10 different drone pilots, maybe a few more, and thank you to everyone who volunteered—what was the community's reaction to all of those people coming out to help? 

Sadie 

[8:27]–[10:44] 

I think they were overwhelmed and incredibly grateful. My social media post was shared more than 190 times, and we had people reaching out from as far away as Christine wanting to help. I know other communities had also been affected, so when I told people the Northern Plains UAS Test Site wanted to come out and help, they were humbled, surprised, and just so appreciative. I don't think drones are something people immediately think of during a disaster response. 

Early in my career, I worked with the UAS Summit in Grand Forks, so I'd already seen how drones can make a difference in disaster and crisis situations. I knew they could be incredibly helpful in looking for these missing items and, at the very least, give families some peace of mind knowing every effort had been made to recover them. 

One of my high school classmates had her farm declared a total loss. They lost vehicles, trailers, and so much more. She said the aerial searches and drone footage really helped with the insurance claim process because the damage was clearly documented, leaving little question about the extent of the destruction. I think the response helped in more ways than people realized and will continue to help as recovery moves forward. The volunteer response overall was amazing, including the amateur drone pilots, and I think they learned a lot from your team, Hunter. It was really great to see everyone working together. 

Victor 

[10:44]–[11:03] 

And back to you, Hunter. On a more personal note, what made you raise your hand and say, "I'm going to volunteer and do this?" 

Hunter 

[11:03]–[11:47] 

Yep. I would say, one, being North Dakota through and through, trying to be able to help the community in any way that we can. Like you alluded to, we had 10 or 11 pilots scattered from across the state. I'm in Fargo right now, so I made the trip from Fargo, but we also had a team from Grand Forks and a team from Bismarck. Everybody wanted to come in and do their fair share to help because it can be Enderlin a couple weeks ago, but it could be Fargo or anywhere else in North Dakota tomorrow. So, that's what really made me try to get up and get out there and see the damage firsthand. We can read about it, and we can see pictures of it, but until you actually go to the scene and see the devastation, you really aren't going to understand the full gravity of those effects. 

Victor 

[11:47]–[12:23] 

Thanks. Thanks, Hunter. And then also on that note, Hunter, with the future role of technology, how do we think that the new regulations for 108 or kind of more BVLOS, how is that going to help in these search efforts when, as of right now, we could only fly under Part 107 rules? How is the BVLOS function going to help for, hopefully not too many future devastations, but similar events like these? 

Hunter 

[12:23]–[13:11] 

Yeah. Fully unlocking BVLOS is going to be critical for these first responder and disaster response efforts because we're so hampered by the current requirement that we have to stay within the visual line of sight of the drone. That equates us to about a mile and a half to two miles, depending on your eyesight. That's really going to help when we have to assess a long tornado path. I'm not sure on the total distance of this one, but it was much longer than two miles. Being able to fly those assessments beyond visual line of sight will only speed up the recovery efforts. 

Victor 

[13:11]–[15:04] 

Yeah. And then, Sadie, again, is there anything more you can relay about the drone response or anything else you can really say about how effective this was? 

Sadie 

[13:11]–[15:04] 

Yeah, I think Hunter said they maybe didn't find the things they were looking for, but I think people needed to see what that looked like. I've heard a couple different stories about people finding letters 90 miles away. I also think the sheer force of the tornado was stronger than what we've seen before. I heard 160 mph winds reported, so while you maybe didn't find certain things, they may have been destroyed or scattered into millions of little pieces across the area. A friend of mine who farms a few miles away from where my childhood home is found pictures from our neighbor's residence. So I think it still gives people a good understanding of what the damage really is. Whether it's a tornado in the summer or a blizzard in the winter, there are so many different ways this technology can help. I'd also point out that North Dakota is a leader in this. We're a test site, which means we're helping lead the way in this industry, and I think that's something we should be proud of. 

Victor 

[15:04]–[15:48] 

Well, thank you very much for that. I think we've covered quite a bit about how drones have been very effective in disaster cleanup. Is there any questions from those of you joining us online or here in the room? If you'd like to ask anything about the response, how we used our drones, or the effects on the people of Enderlin, feel free to put your question in the chat. 

Sadie 

[15:48]–[16:21] 

I heard a little bit about the recovery day and the way it was organized. I wasn't able to be there that day, but it was my understanding that they assigned pilots to different fields and then sent different teams out to each field. Hunter, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about the organization and whether that was an effective method. 

Hunter 

[16:21]–[17:28] 

Yeah, I would say it was. We really didn't know how many drone pilots were going to show up besides our four from the Test Site. When we got there around 8:00, they were breaking everyone into groups. There were about nine groups formed to walk nine different fields, and luckily we had 10 pilots, so we actually had one extra. That allowed us to put two pilots with one group to speed up the process. For only about 24 hours' notice after the call for volunteers went out, more than 150 people showed up to walk those fields, along with 10 or 11 drone pilots. Each group had a UAS pilot who could provide that better bird's-eye view and help assess the damage from the air, which I think was critical. From a communication standpoint, all the drone pilots coordinated with one another and stayed in contact with the main coordinator throughout the day. We made sure we knew who was flying and when so we didn't create any collision hazards or other issues. 

Victor 

[17:28]–[17:38] 

Okay. Any other questions? 

Sadie 

[17:38]–[19:08] 

I was thinking about the number of people who showed up. Enderlin has a population of a little over 800 people on a good day, so having 150 volunteers come to help was huge for the community. I think there will be more cleanup days as time goes on. A lot of people weren't able to begin cleaning up right away because they had to leave everything in place until insurance adjusters could inspect the damage. I'd also say this is a moment in history for the town, and having that documentation and video is incredibly important. I had never seen the impact of a tornado that close up or what it does to the trees, the fields, and the landscape. It almost looked like a forest fire had gone through. The devastation is very literal when you see it that way. While it's certainly not a happy memory, I do believe this is a moment in history that the town will want to remember, and I think the drone footage is another important part of that. 

Victor 

[19:08]–[20:14] 

That's great. We got a chat from Katherine, who's watching us online, just saying thanks for sharing your story and that it was great to hear about all the volunteers who showed up. Seeing that there are no other questions, I'd just like to thank you, Sadie, for joining us on such a quick turnaround this morning. Hunter, thank you as well for telling us about the impact the drones had and sharing that boots-on-the-ground perspective. It's a great example of how technology and our communities can come together and support one another in times of need. So again, thank you, everybody, for tuning in to Beyond the Buzz. We'll see you all in August for our next episode. Thanks again, Sadie and Hunter, and have a great rest of your day. 

Sadie: Thank you so much. 

Hunter: Thank you.