Google public alerts to offer real-time flood information in India via Maps and Google Now

After the recent spurt in natural disasters in the sub continent, Google has activated a public alert system that would offer valuable information on the water level across 170 areas in India. Through a tie-up with the flood forecasting network of India, Google users could now receive real time information on the water level of rivers across India. Since Google now has access to this information from Indian authorities, users could get this information across Google Now cards, Google App, Google Maps, as well as the Google Public Alerts homepage. According to a post on the official Google India blog, Payal Patel, Product Manager and Kiran Bapna, Head, New Business Development, Google India expressed their gratitude to the Central Water Commission “for making their flood alerts available as well as the India Meteorological Department for their cyclone alerts.” The post went on to add that Google aims to help more people prepare for natural disasters with the objective of protecting more lives. It aims to do so by making critical and life-saving information more widely available to people around India. Recently, during the Chennai floods , and also during the earthquake in Manipur , Facebook had activated its Safety Check, which enabled users to mark themselves as safe if they were in the vicinity of the disaster. Similarly, Google had also enabled mechanisms that let users find information on the whereabouts of their loved ones during natural calamities.