Red Cross provides link to earthquake survivor list
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), working closely with the Japanese Red Cross, has launched a special “Family Links” website to help people seeking to re-establish contact with family members and friends after the recent earthquake and tsunami.
People in Japan and abroad can register on the website to inform their family and friends that they are safe, and provide their current contact details, while those looking for people can check the list for information. They can also register the names of family members and friends, encouraging them to get in touch.
The website is at http://www.icrc.org/familylinks and is currently available in English.
The Red Cross is still unable to accept International Disaster Inquiries for Japan. Please encourage members of your community to utilize the ICRC website and to keep calling and trying to contact other family members who live in the region. Even though communication networks are overloaded, the situation may change and access to mobile networks and the internet may improve.
Other Family Linking Resources
The Google Person Finder site is available at: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en
If you have the mobile phone number of your family member in the affected areas, you may utilize the following services to check whether he/she has registered his/her message(s) on this service. Services are available in English and Japanese.
Please note that when you enter the mobile phone number for search on the webpage, you should remove the country code 0081 and add 0 at the beginning. For example, if you dial the number internationally as follows, 0081-90-8877-6655, enter it into the website as: 09088776655 (enter the number without any dashes).
US Citizens Living or Traveling in Japan
Inquiries concerning U.S. citizens living or traveling in Japan should be referred to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services at 1-888-407-4747 or 202 647-5225.
Inquiries Regarding US Military Stationed in Japan
The American Red Cross Safe and Well website has been updated to include the disaster dropdown “Japanese Earthquake.” Military members can register themselves on the site as being safe and well and families of Military members stationed overseas can check to see if their loved ones are registered on the site: www.redcross.org/safeandwell
Published 3-18-2011