The earthquake that caused a huge tsunami that consumed the coasts of Sendai has made thousands of lives lost, possibly reaching tens of thousands. Currently there are about 100 thousand people missing in Sendai as rescue workers work day and night to find trapped victims under the rubbles. Due to the massive earthquake, main facilities like electricity, telco services, and Internet, are cut off at a few cities affected, to reduce power load of Japan.

Originally launched after Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake in 2010, Google’s Person Finder tool has been a helpful tool for many people during several disasters since then. Today Google launched Person Finder Japan for those affected by the earthquake in Japan, to locate people that you fail to contact, as a secondary comfort method just to make sure that friend or family member of yours is safe from the disaster, until you can officially contact him or her.

Announced via Twitter, the service is available in both English and Japanese. According to the app, Google is currently tracking about 7200 records, but this number is expected to rise quickly as people try to reach out to loved ones. In the aftermath of Chile’s 2010 quake, the number of records reached nearly 40,000 in just three days.

Our thoughts are with the victims of Japan’s earthquake disaster, and our condolence towards people who lost their family and friends.

SOURCE via Google