Families' desperate search
2005-09-06 15:16
Washington - "I need to know if they are dead or alive." "Your family is worried about you!" "I haven't heard from my fiancé Melvin Owens..."
These are the contents of message bottles thrown into cyberspace by families separated by Hurricane Katrina that is believed to have left thousands of people dead.
With telephone lines down and evacuation sites often located far from home, many Americans have not received any word from their families since the storm hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on August 29.
The Red Cross website, familylinks.icrc.org/katrina, has been operating only since Saturday, but more than 20 000 people, anxious to find those missing or get news about them, have already registered there, according to Lauren Peduzzi, a spokesperson for the humanitarian organisation.
Another 20 000 messages left at another site, nola.com, which is operated from New Orleans, contain expressions of love, anguish and friendship.
Relatives need closure
"I need to know if they are dead or alive," writes James from Belize, who is looking for Barbara and John Jordan, but does not disclose their family links.
Judy K is trying to find her husband and sons. They were in a New Orleans neighbourhood known as Saint Bernard that has been severely affected by flooding following a break in a levee hit by the hurricane.
"I haven't heard from my fiancé Melvin Owens," writes a young woman. "He was in the Blue Water rehab programme (a New Orleans parish prison). This pain and uncertainty is unbearable."
A New Orleans resident is worried about the fate of Ernie, a shoe shiner, a his wife Rose.
"He's been shining shoes for many years in the French Quarter's Jackson Square," says the query.
Michelle, a teenager, admits she is desperate to find her friends, Anthony and Richard.
"I am only 16 years old," she writes. "Looking for my two friends. Please help me. I can't eat or sleep."
"Somebody please check the priest and the families held up in the New Orleans archdiocese," says another message, asking people who know anything about their fate to contact the archbishop in Baton Rouge, the Louisiana capital.
Few responses
Some of the messages have been written by volunteers on behalf of residents evacuated in the wake of the storm, sometimes to places located more than 50km from New Orleans. Few get any response.
One million people are estimated to have been displaced by Katrina. Many left New Orleans or its suburbs, which together were home to 1.4 million people before the tragedy, in haste.
Firefighter Troy Williams stayed behind. For five days, he has been rescuing victims of the hurricane. He last heard from his loved ones on August 30, according to the message he left on the site.
His Father Ralph, 64, Mom Doris, 62, and brother Tory, 27 left their Broadway street home to stay with Grandmother Annie Williams, 84, in the 3rd Ward and have not been heard from.