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Friday, November 21, 2008
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FEMA offers a unique new locator service for use by Gustav victims |
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Written by Lara Jakes Jordan, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Sunday, 31 August 2008 |
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WASHINGTON - Lost or displaced Gulf Coast residents will be able to search for their families in Hurricane Gustav's aftermath through a new FEMA locator system that was created as a lesson learned from the chaotic 2005 storms.
The program was unveiled by FEMA Director David Paulison.
An estimated 18,000 people were reported lost immediately after hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma slammed into the Gulf Coast and Florida three years ago, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
Paulson says during Hurricane Katrina, officials didn't have a system like that in place now, and it was very difficult for families to locate family members.
The National Emergency Family Registry Locator system aims to replace frantic and piecemeal attempts - mostly through personal Web sites or non-profit aid agencies - to find missing relatives.
Paulison said it can be accessed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Web site at www.fema.gov or by calling toll-free at 1-800-588-9822.
"You have to register to make sure" that family members can find their relatives, Paulison said Sunday. There is also a section on the system specifically for missing children, he said.
In the wreckage of Katrina, telephone systems were knocked out for months, forcing desperate families to try to reach the missing through television or the Internet.
Three months after Katrina, 1,030 children were still listed as missing with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
At one point, more than 340,000 people had signed on to an American Red Cross online service to help loved ones locate one another.
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