TIME

DRONES ARE EVERYWHERE. GET USED TO IT

Surfers avoid riptides off Australia’s southwestern coast

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last September, it ravaged the island’s electrical grid and communications systems. For weeks, many of the approximately 5 million Puerto Ricans living in the mainland U.S. were unable to reach their loved ones. While recovery groups worked to restore power and deliver aid, cell providers scrambled to repair their networks. To get its service back up and running, AT&T tried something new: the Flying COW, a tethered drone that beamed mobile-data signals up to 40 miles in all directions.

“As soon as we turned it on, people just started

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