Facebook has emerged as an important source of reaching out for help for many people in Chennai.
Facebook’s Safety Check feature has been activated for Chennai on account of the heavy flooding and rains in the Tamil Nadu capital. Meanwhile Google has also launched its own resource page for flooding in South India.
The Facebook Safety Check feature lets users mark themselves as safe and notify their friends about their status as well. If a user is in the affected area, they can let their friends know and reach out for help. You can use the feature here.
Facebook Chennai Floods Safety Check feature has been activated by the social media site.
Google’s Crisis response page for the Chennai floods can be accessed here. It has a list of emergency numbers, what Chennai, a crowd-sourced list of the flooded streets in Chennai and a list of relief centres in the city.
Facebook’s Safety Check feature was recently activated in Nigeria and Paris after the bombings and terror attacks. Until the Paris attacks, the feature had been restricted to natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, etc but after that Facebook decided it would extend the feature to man-made tragedies as well.
Google’s Crisis response page for Chennai flooding has also gone live.
Facebook has emerged as an important source of reaching out for help for many people in Chennai. Users have been posting status messages about friends, family, who are caught in affected areas and in need of rescue or medical help.
Emergency numbers, provisions, offers for space are being extensively shared on the social media platform.
Read more: #ChennaiRains: People turn samaritans, open their doors to welcome those affected by floods