Katrina: Names on website

2005-09-04 16:14

Washington - The International Committee of the Red Cross set up a website on Sunday to facilitate the systematic search for relatives lost in the chaos of the Hurricane Katrina - the worst natural catastrophe in the history of the United States.

The ICRC which usually becomes active during wars, designed the website to help reunite families.

It registers survivors who in turn can post adverts to search for their relatives.

New arrivals in emergency shelters can put up notes showing their names, addresses, contact data and be added to the registers themselves.

The list already had 10 000 names on Sunday with 30 persons per page. Names beginning with "A" had spread as far as page 50 and beyond.

In addition, several newspapers, radio stations and blog spots have started lists of missing people.

Large refugee shelters have erected bulletin boards requesting information on families.

Nevertheless, reuniting a family remained difficult even if the name of the person sought had been found on the list.

A family from Texas, who had found their grandmother's name among those listed as "rescued in Houston's Astrodome", spent hours looking for her among 15 000 other people lying on camp beds there.

More information can be found on www.familylinks.icrc.org/katrina - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA