Whenever there’s a natural disaster, your friends and family will want to know that you’re safe. Facebook has tried to make this easier with its Safety Check feature. Here’s how to let everyone you know on Facebook that you’re safe with a couple clicks, instead of messaging everyone individually.
Facebook aims to automatically activate Safety Check if you’re in the area of a disaster it knows about. If you live in an area where a number of people are posting about an event, Facebook may send you a notification asking if you’re safe. If you get a notification like the one below, simply click it and choose I’m Safe. Facebook will then create a post marking you safe in the area.
If you don’t get that notification, you can open the Safety Check section here. On this page, you’ll see a list of events that have affected you or your family. Click the one you’re affected by.
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On this page, there’s a banner at the top of the page asking if you’re in the affected area. If you are, click Yes and you can mark yourself safe or not. You can also ask your friends if they’re safe from this page.
If you scroll down a bit on the emergency event page, there’s a module in the side bar where you can donate to various organizations who are working on relief effort. Usually, several non-profits have fundraisers set up (or you can start your own, if you want).
If you’re in an affected area, you hopefully won’t have to dive this deep into the Safety Check tool to mark yourself safe, but it’s good to know how to do so if you need to.
