Google
Person Finder is a web application that allows individuals to post and
search for the status of relatives or friends affected by a disaster,
Google said in a blogpost.
"Since last week,
the state of Uttarakhand in India has been grappling with severe floods.
Given that most of these areas in the state are highly inaccessible
with intermittent communication, Google Crisis team bring you the Person
Finder," the blog post by Jayanth Mysore, Google APAC Senior Product
Manager, said.
The tool can help trace the
missing people in flood-affected regions of Uttarakhand and is available
in Hindi and English, it added.data entered into Google Person Finder
is available to the public and searchable by anyone. The programme also
lets press agencies, non-governmental agencies and others contribute to
the database and receive updates by using the Person Finder API based on
the PFIF open standard.
Flash floods and
landslides triggered by the monsoon fury left over 150 dead in
calamity-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, while thousands of
pilgrims and locals are being rescued various districts, including
Rudraprayag and Chamoli.
50,000 people are
still said to be stranded in various parts of Uttarakhand that was hit
by cloudburst and floods. The calamity has ruined thousands of homes,
rest houses and buildings.
The official death
toll still stood at 150, but chief minister Vijay Bahuguna said the
casualties could run into several hundreds which will be known only when
areas become accessible and water recedes.
The
state government's disaster mitigation and management centre had in the
morning said that the causalities could run into thousands with about
90 dharamshalas (rest houses for pilgrims) swept away in the flash
floods.
No comments:
Post a Comment