American Red Cross Shelter View App Makes Top 10 App List in iTunes Store

BOULDER, Colo., Aug. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Red Cross "Shelter View" application, released in Apple's iTunes Store February 2011, has hit the top 10 list of free utilities after experiencing a surge in downloads to help those affected by Hurricane Irene find the closest shelter and get to safety.

The application displays real time shelter information from the National Shelter System, updated every thirty minutes, utilizing the NSS Shelter Data Exchange Standard (SDES).

The application provides a simple work flow to allow users to see a national map and list view of open Red Cross shelters, location maps, and information about the shelter population, capacity, incident and DRO information.

In addition, the application provides links for the user to donate or view up-to-date information from the Red Cross Newsroom website.

While useful for disaster relief officials, shelter managers, staff and volunteers, the application is also available for download to the public at no charge.

Design and development costs for the Shelter View application were contributed to the American Red Cross by VisionLink, Inc., as apart of the CommunityOS™ platform.

This new application complements the current set of two existing mobile applications that allow shelter managers to update shelter information and the public to register themselves with Safe & Well. These applications work on most web enabled cell phones.

To download, go to the Apple iTunes Store and visit http://itunes.apple.com/app/american-red-cross-shelter/id419258261?mt=8.

About VisionLink

VisionLink has been supporting communities since 1991. Branching out internationally, VisionLink now manages millions of client records for our customers, who in turn manage information about human service providers, government agencies, schools and employers. VisionLink technology has provided assistance to more than 8 million people and supports resources and clients in more than 14,000 U.S. cities and 150 countries around the world.

SOURCE VisionLink