As wildfires continue to devastate parts of California, checking on friends and family in the area is often a difficult proposition. Thousands have had to evacuate their homes, and many of those evacuees are in situations where they might have limited access to the power for their phones to let people know they’re OK.
If you’re currently trying to check on a friend or family member in the area and are having trouble, there are a few places you can go to look for information. If you’re impacted by the fires, these are also good spots to place information about your own current situation so those you care about can find it.
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross has an option its website for residents to register as “safe and well.” When they do, those residents can also put additional information such as details about where they’ve evacuated to or when they expect to be connected to accept phone calls.
This is a good first stop for those looking for friends and family members as well as those who are impacted by the fire that want to let people know they’re OK.
Similar to other natural disasters, Facebook has the option on its site for users to mark themselves safe during the fires. If you’re Facebook friends with the person you’re looking for, then give the social network a try to see if your loved one has marked themselves safe or posted any updates.
For those impacted by the fire, marking yourself safe is always a good idea and can help put friend’s mind’s at ease and save you from answering a dozen texts and phone calls. If you have information about where you are evacuating to (or if you think you’ll evacuate at all), consider posting a status message on your wall that concerned friends and family can read.
Like Facebook, Twitter is a great way for those impacted by the fires to let people in their network know they’re OK. If you’re having trouble locating a friend or family member actor James Woods is also retweeting tweets using the hashtag #CampFireJamesWoods with info for missing persons.
When someone he’s tweeted about is found, the tweets are removed from his timeline.
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