Google Person Finder and SOS Alerts have been activated in Kerala

[AriMar]

Our thoughts are with those in Kerala, India, who are facing severe floods and landslides. Google has activated Google Person Finder to help track missing people: goo.gl/WxuUFp

Use this link to SOS Alerts to get emergency information and to stay updated on the latest news in Kerala: goo.gl/P65WH2

Caption: A screenshot of Google Person Finder being used to locate someone during the Kerala flooding.

[Wi1]

hahha thats cool men

[raghavsood]

Greta initiative! Keep the good work going!

[ShravanJain]

Thank you @AriMar for launching this feature to help people in distress.

I request all other local guides to help people in distress due to natura calamity by donating small amount.

Here is the link whewh you can donate some money and show love for Kerala - #Donation

[AtoBrown]

Wow....its a great idea

I encourage everyone in the Kerala vicinity to do their part to help one another, both in helping to find missing ones and letting people know found ones as well.

Those of us who can't be there physically are supporting you with prayers.

May the Lord be with us all.

[docboylive]

Thank goodness for technology. This feature is wonderful. The next step would be for Google to design some means of communication specifically when there is no power supply and cell phone batteries have run out of juice. This is so so important in times of Natural disasters. This can also avoid unnecessary fake news propaganda. 

[Devaacl]

Google map saved a life in Kerala.. 

This moment ...iam proud to be a Google map local guide...

He also shared this idea with his friend in Kuwait, who could not contact his family

Wednesday night was a frantic one for Bengaluru-based Rishikesh Ganga. The 30-year-old content strategist had been trying to reach his 77-year-old grandmother, who was alone in Chalakkara, 40 kilometres away from Thrissur in Kerala.

“She stays there alone and I wasn’t able to reach her on her mobile phone or her landline,” Rishikesh told TNM. His parents and sister who stayed in Thrissur had already evacuated their home and were staying in a hotel. They were not able to reach her or help either.

“To make matters worse, traveling from Bengaluru to Kerala was not possible as most of the roads were closed or flooded,” Rishikesh said. “And she only uses a very basic phone, meaning she could not even have used it to send location or video messages for help, even if she had power.”

After numerous calls to many helplines and control rooms failed to yield results, and after several Facebook posts failed to have the desired impact, Rishikesh came up with a smart solution on Thursday to reach out to his grandmother and ensure she was okay.

“I pulled up the Google map of the area and started calling up individual shop owners nearby. Luckily, I was able to contact a man called Benny, who worked at the nearby cable TV office,” Rishikesh narrates.

Turns out, Benny stayed about 800 metres away from his grandmother’s home. He promised to call Rishikesh once he was able to reach her as it was still pouring at the time.

Finally, on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 pm, Benny called back. “And sure enough, it was my grandma who said "Hello",” Rishikesh said, his relief palpable in his voice.

He was able to confirm that his grandmother was indeed okay, and so was her home. “Her house is on a slope, so the only thing keeping water from entering is the higher ground she is on. I learnt that just 500 metres ahead, the area was flooded. So, it did not make sense to move her either,” he said.

Finally, Rishikesh asked Benny if it would be okay to reach him in case he needed to check on his grandmother again. “Benny wholeheartedly agreed and assured me that he would do the needful in providing support,” Rishikesh said.

Rishikesh’s family owns and runs a jewelry store in Chalakkara, which his mother and grandmother take care of. That has also been shut because of the flooding since last Saturday. “We haven’t been able to assess the damage because we haven’t been able to go there and check,” he said.

Apart from helping his grandmother, Rishikesh was also able to give the idea to a friend based in Kuwait who was unable to reach his family in Kerala. “They were also able to reach a person who lived nearby using Google Maps, who then passed on my friend’s family’s information to local rescue groups,” Rishikesh shares

[Sorbe]

Hi @Devaacl

Thank you for sharing your personal experience in this post. 

The whole Local Guide experience is based on community feeling, and helping others in such a catastrophe makes you realize the importance of creating links and interactions in order to make things easier even in hard situations. 

My hope is that you and all the people involved in this will get soon through this. 

I moved your post into - Google Person Finder and SOS Alerts have been activated in Kerala in order to interact better with the other Local Guides regarding this. 

[bhaskar_arin]

@AriMar

It was a great iitiative and helped many people

Thanks for the team, who worked on this and make helpful to lakhs of people

[Fahid]

Hi all,

Having personally involved as one among many in coordinating the resue requests and forwarding the same to the concerned, this "Person Finder" helped many to locate the missing person. 

Another key service provided by Google was  "Goolge kerala flood relief - updated list" (below), which is still continues to help all to plan and get the things moving

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=19pdXYBAk8RyaMjazX7mjJIJ9EqAyoRs5&shorturl=1&ll=10.2541...

I also thought of a rescue mode in GMaps to help any emergency cases which is given in the idea exchange forum. Free feel to add your comments on the same.

https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/All-Ideas/Emergency-Rescue-Mode-in-GMaps/idi-p/1013020

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Details of the floods effects and its corrections a as per the last media briefing are given below

*2287 camps presently functioning in the state with population of 8.16 lakh (.816 Millions) persons.
*Will establish an ITES service to assess losses.
*People can register for damage claims through a form provided by the government website
*Akshaya kendras will provide help to submit forms
*7000+ houses totally and 50k+ houses partially are destroyed, based on a primary estimate
* ₹10000 will be credited to bank account and relief kit will be given initially for those leaving home from the relief camps. 242 Cr from CMDRF is allotted for this by GO.
*535 crore of donations arrived till yesterday (24.08.2018) in CMDRF. (This was later updated as Rs 1,026 crore [10.26B INR] till 30th August 2018) 
* PSUs have come forward. BPCL has given 25 Cr. Indian Bank 4 Cr. Everyone has come forward to our aid, including small children.
* Thank the SC for directing central government employees to contribute to CMDRF.
* Any disaster can be overcome if we face it together. Each Keralite should think about and contribute to the rebuilding of Kerala.
* Water authority will provide drinking water in tankers to places where there is shortage. A difficulty is that a lot of households have lost storage utensils .

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Lets face it together, lets overcome!!!

Regards,

Fahid K.A.

[DivulgaTVZ]

Wish all lucky to you.

[SaalumJaaneh]

That's a great help.

[susana1]

Innovation and renovationns related and chase the best to address coming generation tips.

SKPattnaik.

[Salum1985]

It's a very excited experiences

[หอยขม_444]

Give the best to all 

[m-kapoor1943]

It is indeed a very noble cause. We all should help everyone who is in need. We have deep sympathy for the peoples of Kerala. Let us come together and take steps for the betterment of each and everyone who is in need. 

[rruiz]

.            

[MrWaleed]

Google services are always great by providing help and assistance to others in all countries and by all possible means. Thank's Google

[LeithC]

I look forward to seeing this elsewhere in other countries.

[AdaKan8]

Bonsoir

nous partageons les douleurs et continuons de prier pour Kerala

AdaKan8

Q3F2+Q3, Thiés

[eboneyowens]

This is fantastic and is super helpful!!

[mennyed]

This is a really important tool, but it does not get enough exposure. It should be a part of Google Maps .

[tonykuriakose]

I am new here.if anyone wants to help from me please message me

[Amkaleem]

Hye

[AjitSawant]

Great initiative

[ChandraBhanu]

@AriMar This is great use of technology. Thanks for sharing this.

[Anonymous]

my prayers are with you... 

[MrShadin]

stop stop plz stop,, 

I'm coming....... 

Please wait... 😊😜

[FuvadShah]

Thank you Google...it helps a lot

[smjakariya]

It's super helpful

[IgnacioEs]

Es una gran herramienta por parte de Google , está ayuda se activo en mi ciudad hace un año después del temblor en la Ciudad de México del año pasado y es muy útil. Muchas felicidades por tan útil herramienta de ayuda.

[HolyCyborg]

wow... that's a wonderful system to help people

[Tejal]

@AriMar 

Thank you so much for your initiative. 

Regards Tejal

[yhann_1928]

wow. This is an absolutely useful tool. thumbs up!!