Google deploys ‘person finder’ for Kerala

The floods in Kerala is one of the worst disasters India has seen so far. With at least 300 confirmed dead and thousands trapped, there is panic among people in other states who have friends and family in Kerala.

To aid them, Google has deployed its person finder to help people who are looking for someone or if they have information about someone.

At the time of filing this story, the finder was tracking 20,900 records. Apart from Google, PayTM and Amazon are offering their own means for people to provide assistance to the state, either by donating directly to the CM's relief fund in the case of PayTM or by buying items for NGOs in the case of Amazon.

Kerala has seen an unusually high rainfall this year, according to IMD data, which shows that much of the state saw nominal rain between 800 and 1,600 mm between January and June, and 2,091 mm of rain between June 1 and August 15, an excess of over 30%.

Additionally, an IISc report detailing the impact of rampant deforestation states that the forest cover of the state went down from almost 25,000 sqkm in 1976 to a mere 15,000 in 2016.

These two factors have resulted in the floods that has rocked the state for over a week.