Sunnyvale, CA --- April 28, 2008: DCRE Labs announced today that it has launched a new web-based locator database on its FamilyMessages.Org website for those affected by the ongoing wildfires and related emergencies in Southern California.

With the situation rapidly expanding to affect more than 250,000 residents, http://virginia.familymessages.org has been activated to serve as a central virtual meeting point for people displaced by the disaster. The web-based tool allows friends, families and evacuees to leave messages for one another and provides a full-text search capability specifically designed to help people find one another.

The system is free and available to the public. The FamilyMessages.Org platform was first developed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to reunite families and friends separated in the unprecedented evacuation of the Gulf Coast. Now, the system is routinely deployed as a public service by DCRE Labs during disaster events.

Dan Chaney, spokesperson for DCRE Labs, said "No matter how thoroughly we attempt to prepare for a disaster, it's hard to imagine something of this magnitude. We're glad we can offer this service and hope that it may be of use to those attempting to locate and stay in touch with their loved ones. Our thoughts are with those families that have been impacted by the fires as well as those working on site to bring the crisis under control."

Besides friends and family trying to locate missing loved ones, the system is also used by medical personnel and other emergency responders who use the site stay in touch with their friends and family back home while they are deployed at the emergency and recovery sites."