GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Tense moments for a local woman waiting to hear from family near Boulder quickly turned to relief with just the click of a button.

On edge is how Brenda Tillman describes her emotions this week.

"I was just concerned because I hadn't heard from him and I knew that's where the big fire was," says Tillman.

Her Uncle Jack lives alone along Four Mile Canyon Road -- and when she heard the news about the fire and tried to call him, he wasn't picking up his cell phone. So after several attempts, she called the Red Cross.

"They responded to me within an hour and told me to go to the Safe and Well site," says Tillman.

Safe and Well was developed by the Red Cross to connect family members caught in the middle of disaster situations around the world.

"It's really important," says David Hintch, executive director of the Western Colorado Chapter of the American Red Cross. "We really try to get folks to register."

The site allows people in the disaster zone to post a brief message saying they're okay -- then takes that message and puts it in a central, online database that their families can easily access and search.

Red Cross officials say any time they're called in to help with relief efforts, they bring at least one staff member whose only job is to get people registered.

"It's a really powerful tool to have," says Hintch.

Sure enough, when Tillman searched the site, she saw that her Uncle Jack had left a post.

"That was a big relief," says Tillman. "Other than that, I'd probably be over there trying to find him."

The Red Cross says the site has decreased the volume of calls it receives from family members looking for their loved ones -- increasing the amount of time it can spend on relief efforts.

To visit the site, click on the link below listed under Related Links.