Staying In Touch with Friends & Family During Disasters
I just learned about a new feature on Facebook this morning. A few hours after I woke up to news about the earthquake in Nepal, an alert popped up on my phone. My friend who had shown me around Dehli and the Taj Mahal was up near Darjeeling working on the launch of her retreat, and had just checked into Facebook as “safe.”
Facebook safety check functionality was new to me, and one I’m quite grateful for. Internet and cell phone service in her area is hard to come by when things are normal, so I can only imagine what it might be like in times of disaster.
Probably not enough time to send emails or texts to all friends and family letting them know you’re ok. But if you can just get online for a minute or two, you can at least let all your Facebook networks know, who can then spread the world.
Shortly after that a Twitter friend vacationing in Kathmandu tweeted that he had also just discovered this functionality.
Find out more about Facebook Safety Check here.
Follow @jonk to see photos and tweets about being in Kathmandu during the earthquake.
