Falcon UAV is a Colorado company that makes a UAV that uses GPS and cameras to autonomously generate highly accurate maps of the ground. It has public safety flight approvals from the FAA and are designed for (and governmentally approved for) mapping missions in public airspace.
The company that makes these drones has been providing free mapping services to the rescue workers in the Colorado floods. When FEMA took over they not only grounded the UAV's, but threatened to arrest the operators if they used them. FEMA instead relied on aircraft that were "well out of a useful visual range and didn't employ cameras or live video feed to support the recovery effort" while the UAV's could have delivered near real time maps to rescue workers. FEMA had and still has no reason for their decision.