Waze Crisis Response Overview
During a crisis, Waze, its editor community, and partners collaborate to provide real-time updates to drivers. This collective effort ensures that users receive accurate information to make safe, informed driving decisions in affected areas.
How Waze supports users in a crisis
The following features are activated within the app during an emergency to assist users:
- Real-time road closures: Identify and block dangerous or inaccessible routes.
- Shelters and donation centers: Help users locate essential safety resources.
- Evacuation zones: Direct users away from mandated evacuation areas via proactive alerts.
- Crisis Alerts: Deploy rapid push notifications and in-app warnings for community-validated emergencies.
Need to report a crisis?
To report an upcoming or ongoing crisis, please complete the report a crisis form or contact the team at waze-crisis@google.com.
How you can help
The Waze community is essential to supporting impacted drivers. Whether as a local editor or a Global Champ, your contributions provide critical assistance during a crisis through the following actions:
Join the First Responder program
First Responders bridge the gap between the local community and Waze staff, providing the ground-level context necessary to determine if a formal crisis response is required.
Learn about Community First Responders.
Create Crisis events & add road closures
Editors can assist by mapping upcoming or ongoing closures in the Waze Map Editor (WME) and associating them with a “Crisis” type Traffic Event (TE).
Learn how to create Crisis events & road closures here.
Map shelters & donation centers
During a crisis, users can search for “help” in the app to find local resources. You can add these locations directly to the map or coordinate via a dedicated spreadsheet provided by Waze staff.
Learn how to add or share shelters & donation centers.
Share evacuation zones & request Crisis Alerts
Using government data and community requests, Waze triggers area-specific notifications to encourage driver caution. You can support this by providing official evacuation data or requesting alerts for areas requiring rapid communication.
Learn how to share evacuation data and submit Crisis Alert requests. You can submit your requests here.
Run a crisis response drill
Waze conducts regular simulations to identify process gaps and optimize response times for actual emergencies.
Learn how to request and participate in a Crisis Response drill.