This is a bit of an old story, by a week, but I found it and the technology blog worthy.  When an 8,8 earthquake hit Chile last week, many were concerned about friends and family members.  One woman, Sheryl Breuker, used Twitter to find her family members.  By posting status messages and focusing on hash tags, she was able to contact locals.  The locals retweeted her information.  Soon she received the following response: “found her! she is OK…. she told me to tell Twinkie to stay cool, she is fine!”

It is amazing what social networking can do.  In Chile, Twitter was in use when phones lines and email were not.  View the full story here.

Also, check out Google’s Person Finder.  It was created to quickly connect individuals with missing friends and family members.  You simply click “I’m looking for someone” or “I have information about someone.”