Several of my friends, neighbors and family members have died. In none of those cases did I hear about it on the news and call to make sure it wasn't them. If I did that, I'd be doing it daily, because there are always car accidents, murders, suicides, organ failures and cancers in any city every day.

So what I mean is that for a small incident like this, it's usually not reasonable to check on your friends. If they worked in the WTC on 9/11 then their risk is higher so it certainly can be reasonable. Similarly for a tsunami or other disaster with a high death toll.

Good that you can stay so rational under emotional stress.

I would say that in that respect you are probably an outlier, and urge you to remember that facebook is designed for the mean.

But Facebook only activates Safety Check on special occasions.

Which are extremely likely to be the same occasions where calls/emergency calls are not getting through.

It's still hands down the best feature of the entire product. I don't use Facebook for much, nor do I particularly care for it. But this is an amazing use of social graph and the internet. Whomever at FB came up with the concept, much respect.