• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 12, 2016

An amateur drone operator, social media, and a bit of serendipity may well have saved a man’s life amid the ongoing disaster in North Carolina, where the tail end of Hurricane Matthew has resulted in devastating flooding. A complicated chain reaction, spanning the country through social media, produced the remarkable rescue within a day.

According to local North Carolina station WTVD, Army veteran and drone filmmaker Quavas Hart used his drone to take footage of a flooded neighborhood in Hope Mills, NC, not knowing that there was still someone in one of the houses – Chris Williams, who was trapped on the second floor of his home along with his elderly dog Lana. Hart then posted a picture of Williams’ house, over halfway submerged, on Twitter.

Meanwhile Williams’ brother Craig, who lives in Texas, knew that the floodwaters were approaching Chris’ house, but didn’t know that he was already trapped. While waiting for more news, Craig decided to search Twitter for any content about the situation in Hope Mills, where he came across the photo posted by Hart. Hoping to cheer his brother up, he sent him the picture with a wry comment to the effect that at least that wasn’t his house.

Chris immediately responded with the sobering words, “Dude, that is my house,” and the gears began to turn. After failing to reach local emergency services in Hope Mills, Craig reached out to Hart, who sent his drone back to the house and now saw Chris leaning out of a second-story window. With a photo of Chris signaling to the drone in hand, Hart was about to take his own boat to rescue Williams when a FEMA crew arrived and followed Hart’s drone to the house.

Hart was also able to record the subsequent rescue operation, which saved Williams and his dog. Williams’ brother later tweeted Hart: “you saved my brother and his dog, next time I'm over there I owe you a beer or two :).”