If you live along the east coast and are planning to leave your home to escape Hurricane Florence, there is a smartphone app that can help you.
Waze, which calls itself “the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app,” has a feature that will help evacuees find shelter and evacuation centers.
After you download the app — just search “Waze” in your app store; it’s available through Apple and Google Play — open it up and turn on your location settings. If you’re in Hurricane Florence’s path, type “HELP” in the search box and nearby evacuation centers should show up.
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This feature may not immediately work for users in metro Atlanta, as the city is not projected to be in the direct path of the Category 4 storm.
The app also identifies and monitors traffic and road closures, and gives information about nearby gas prices. Map editors working for Waze began adding information for nearly 80 shelters and other storm assistance locations in Hurricane Florence's path on Tuesday.
According to Waze's blog, the app also helped victims during hurricanes Harvey and Irma last year, updating them on where flooded roads were located, where to find gas and how to catch a car pool.
Waze is a crowd-sourced app that was first developed and popularized by an Israeli company in 2006. In 2013, Google purchased it for $1.3 billion.
For more information about Waze, download the app, visit its website or check out its Twitter account.
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