Stark drone videos of empty US cities become online trend amid coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus outbreak is inescapable on the news, but the true impact of the pandemic is best seen online, where a growing number of drone videos show the nation’s biggest cities as ghost towns.
These apocalyptic videos — with titles like “The Big Empty” and “Silent City” — are reminiscent of “something out of a scary, creepy movie,” commenter Scoop Nemeth noted on YouTube.
“I never thought I would see a global pandemic in my lifetime,” another person wrote about a video of Denver’s empty streets. “It’s so eerie to see my home city empty, so many people are scared. Anxiety is starting to get bad.”
The first coronavirus drone videos started appearing on YouTube in early February and featured cities in China. Later, cities in Europe began to show up, particularly in Italy.
In the past two weeks, it’s been American cities depicted, including Boston, Denver, Houston and Chicago.
All are seen from above with deserted downtown streets, empty sidewalks and closed offices in the middle of what would normally be a busy day.
“As the coronavirus rages, huge swathes of the world population are choosing to stay home to prevent spreading it,” wrote Jon Christian on Futurism.com. “The result is an unprecedented desolation in urban centers. It almost evokes a post-apocalyptic movie — except that you know that everybody’s still out there, hiding out at home.”
As of April 1, just under 190,000 Americans were infected with the virus. Self isolation is considered the best way to stop the spread, resulting in shuttered cities, hungry rats “swarming” New Orleans and coyotes prowling empty streets in San Francisco, McClatchy News reported.
Some of the videos have been published by Dronelife, a news site that says drones are being used to tell a story that’s hard to put into words.
“The perspective from 400 feet is like nothing else,” Dronelife Editor in Chief Miriam McNabb told McClatchy News. “During this time which is so strange for all of us, drone flyers sharing pictures of empty cities are showing us that we’re all in this together, that an entire city is doing what they have to.”
Some commenters say they see the empty cities as a sign of hope: Americans are taking stay-at-home orders seriously and refusing to leave for anything but essential business. Those mandated orders continue to go into effect in cities across the nation, and are even in effect for some entire states, such as California and North Carolina.
“Unlike all the zombie and alien-invasion movies that preceded them, the real photos and videos showing quarantined cities from around the world suggest the possibility of a hopeful future,” Jack Morse wrote on Mashable.com. “Humanity is self-isolating, social distancing, and, yes, quarantining in an effort to beat back the coronavirus.”
Here are some of the recent quarantine videos posted on YouTube.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 6:03 AM with the headline "Stark drone videos of empty US cities become online trend amid coronavirus pandemic."