Facebook recently announced Safety Check, a service allowing people affected by natural disasters and other situations to indicate they are all right.
The service works automatically, to a certain degree. For example, if a natural disaster occurs, Facebook will create an event for that disaster, such as an earthquake or hurricane. All Facebook users in the affected area will receive an alert on their smartphone from Facebook asking if they are safe.
Facebook will locate people and alert them based on what’s listed as their home town, where they’ve marked themselves in the Friends Nearby tool, or the point from which they are accessing the internet. Options will allow Facebookers to tell Safety Check they are safe or aren’t in the affected region. The tool will then generate a status update so that particular person’s family and friends can see they are safe.
People will be able to mark friends as safe, as well, and people will automatically receive updates from friends/family who’ve indicated they are safe. The service is free to use.
