U.S. uses drone to pinpoint possible Ike damage

(Adds comment by Sec. Michael Chertoff, details)

By Tim Gaynor

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will use a state-of-the-art surveillance drone to pinpoint any damage to the U.S. eastern seaboard caused by Hurricane Ike, authorities said on Friday.

Ike, a powerful Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, took aim for the Florida Keys and the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico on Friday. Although the exact path of the storm is uncertain, it is projected to become a destructive Category 4 hurricane.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency dispatched a Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle this week to survey some 2,000 miles (3,200-kms) of coastline stretching from the Gulf coast of Florida to North Carolina. It's the first time such drones have been used in storm planning.

CBP spokesman Juan Munoz-Torres said radar technology onboard the aircraft would provide a baseline snapshot of buildings, bridges and other infrastructure in preliminary overflights, which are expected to be completed on Sunday.

Should the storm strike the area, subsequent overflights would swiftly identify changes to key infrastructure, including power plants, bridges and water treatment facilities.

The drone would "identify damage and help to direct first responders to the places that they need to be," Munoz-Torres told Reuters by telephone.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked that the aircraft be sent to the region, Munoz-Torres said.

CBP has four of the unmanned aircraft, which it uses to provide security on the southwest border with Mexico, and in limited surveillance operations off the coast of Florida.

The aircraft takes off and lands at a U.S. Navy air station in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is flown via satellite up-link by pilots operating from a ground control station in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Authorities had planned to use it ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which roared across parts of southern Louisiana on Monday ripping off roofs and snapping power lines, but were unable to get it airborne before the storm hit because of a computer glitch.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said it was used during recovery operations to overfly affected areas to "help tell the state and local government where there might be problems with the power lines."

Battlefield versions of the aircraft are used by the U.S. military and CIA to target insurgents in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East.