Red Cross website for missing logs 94,000 names.

[barbaraann]

Tue Sep 6,12:59 PM ET

GENEVA (AFP) - Some 94,000 names have been registered on a website created by the international Red Cross to help people trace their relatives in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the number is growing, it said.

Use of the list on www.familylinks.icrc.org, which is compiled jointly with the American Red Cross, has risen sharply in the past day, Florian Westphal of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) told reporters.

Survivors in the United States can use the "family news network" to let people know where they are, while other relatives can post names of those feared missing or remove names after people are located.
...
In an interview with the BBC, Annan also said he shared the "disbelief" of many people at the chaos afflicting the world's superpower, and the extent of the damage wrought by the storm.
...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usweatheraidicrcun

[MyDogSpot]

1. Not sure what my tolerance threshold for death in the Gulf is

before my head explodes, but if Bush and his cronies don't get their asses kicked out of government for this and tried for crimes against humanity, we will no longer be living in a democracy.

[Barrett808]

5. "Democracy" is a slippery concept

Just because people vote doesn't necessarily imply a functioning democracy...

[BrightKnight]

2. There is no comprehensive database of lost and found people

There are many many resources. Most of the are poorly designed and difficult to search. Not everyone has internet access or is savvy enough to perform the searches. The Salvation Army and other clearing house call centers only search a limited number of resources for callers. Nobody knows where everyone was evacuated to. This is very very sad.

The government needs to invest the resources to correct this problem immediately.

[barbaraann]

3. Kick for people who might need this resource.

n/t

[NYC]

4. I wonder how many of the 94,000 are dead.

Will we ever know?

[cliss]

6. I was guessing that we would lose

upward of 100,000 in this disaster.

When the final tally comes out, Bush is finished. And I mean that.

[tkmorris]

7. You're assuming a tally will come out

and that it will be reasonably accurate. It won't be. They will do everything in their power to minimize that number. The attempt to bury people in mass graves is for exactly that reason.

[starroute]

8. How do they handle the legalities if they suppress the names?

Think of all the cases where people have to be certified as dead:

- Old folk on Social Security. Do they just keep sending the checks forever?

- People with life insurance. Do they refuse to pay the survivors because there's no proof the insuree died?

- Widows or widowers. Do they tell them they have to wait 7 years to remarry because there's no proof of the spouse's death?


Somebody's going to have to create a reliable list, because the legal tangles are going to break the system if they don't.

[cliss]

11. Well, I think they'll try to bury (sorry)

the totals. But you're right: it's going to be damn hard to hide the truth this time.

This is not Iraq & Afghanistan.

[DELUSIONAL]

18. Exactly --

I have some experience in Genealogy -- and what Genealogy is really is records searching and verification of records.

Americans generate countless records all through their lives.

The bad guys might be able to hide a few deaths -- but the cover up will convict them.

The Government has no way of knowing how many people might know or miss the person they might try to dispose of in a mass grave. And it takes people to dispose of people -- and eventually it WILL get out. Secrets like this just cannot stay hidden

But basically "starroute" is absolutely correct -- the paper trail of checks and the paper work needed for the dead. An amazing amount of paperwork is generated when you die -- and often this information is more detailed than other records we find.

Mass graves might work in Africa -- or a "third world" country -- but not in the obsessive/compulsive US of A of record keeping.

PLUS the 2000 census -- when the Democrats regain power they can write a law to use the 2000 census. I can assure you that Genealogists KNOW how to use census to trace people down.

Turn thousands or a few hundred Genealogists on the task of recreating the neighborhoods and then locating survivors -- we can come up with a very accurate idea of how many people were killed in New Orleans and throughout the other areas hit by Hurricane Katrina.

This missing persons list is a good way to start the process -- THE TRUTH will win.

edit addition: SCHOOLS generate tons of records -- as do hospitals etc etc etc -- public records, institutional records, private records etc etc. Each of us generate numerous records throughout out lives.

Which is why John Roberts should be toast as a Supreme Court nominee -- because he left a paper trail.

[Occulus]

25. In cases where whole families died,

or where there were no living relatives, hiding those names would be very very easy, sonce there would be nobody to speak for them and say they're missing. For that matter, nobody would know they were killed in the first place- period.

Fairly easy to do in chaos like this.

[Lindacooks]

9. From your lips to god's ears.

Here's one of my favorite sayings:

"Bless you, if there's a god and he isn't blinded by tears."

[Skittles]

10. I am desperately hoping a lot of these names are duplicates

formal names vs names used, maybe even misspellings.....please, please

[BQueen]

14. Ah, but I imagine many illegals won't appear at all

I would think any family that is also here would be afraid (rightly with these bastids) of deportation if they got involved with any "official" lists.

[hunter]

24. I think we should be greatly concerned about this...

We seem to be in the business of dehumanizing victims who are U.S. citizens. There's no telling what terrors undocumented immigrants are facing.

[Hello_Kitty]

20. Or they are in shelters

And simply haven't been able to contact relatives yet.

[progressoid]

12. Unbelievable.......eom

[BrightKnight]

13. The Salvation Army database had about 15k on Sunday.

The database had just been created.

[neweurope]

15. One of your new concentration camps might be the first place

they should start to be looking for them:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4671658

I still can't get over that story. It needs to be spread far and wide, questions must be asked, outsiders should be at the gates day and night - and the press must be involved.

------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[ngGale]

16. This is going to be a continuing nightmare....

(In an interview with the BBC, Annan also said he shared the "disbelief" of many people at the chaos afflicting the world's superpower, and the extent of the damage wrought by the storm.)

"Disbelief" is the word for it, the ineptitude of all this.

[fooj]

17. The children. Don't forget the children.

Peace.:cry:

[booksenkatz]

19. And what about the ones who aren't on that list

because they had no family to miss them, or to inquire about them?
:cry:

[Dunvegan]

22. I share your concern...

...for the lost and unmourned.

That is why it's important to get all paper and non-offsite electronic information out of there from hospitals, courts, and even jails.

Many people that have no one do find need for an emergency room visit, or wind up in jail for whatever. These records could give us those names.

[Dunvegan]

23. Runaway shelters...

...would be another set of records that we should save.

Free clinics...resident hotels...the list is not that long, but important.

[Dunvegan]

21. It will take time...but in about 3-6 months we'll have a close death count

I've been saying approximately 70,000 deaths in NOLO and the Gulf combined.

There are people who will collect the data (not necessarily the government) and make a close calculation.

You can always add in an appropriate assumption of "unclaimed missing" also: runaways, people alienated from their families, homeless, etc.

That is the sort of thing an actuary can and does do.

We'll have to collect data carefully and run batches to remove duplicates to get the first count. Insurance. Lost Relative/Friend Boards/Birth Records.

I really want to emphasize that they must save the records in NOLA City Hall NOW. DMV should be almost all electronic, and backed up on tape sent to a secondary records site (fingers crossed). Hospital records should be saved to confirm births, deaths, and personal medica history (something vital to good health care.)

Airlift any paper records out of there. They are necessary for repatriation, disaster relief directly to victims, and to history.

[BrightKnight]

26. I'm concerned about the living. Families need to know now.

The volunteers are well intentioned but some central coordination is needed. One official centralized database should be maintained.


Any media outlet that wants to post lost and found people information should link to the one central database.

Having millions of little puddles of information in not helpful. It take a volunteer a very long time to search for a single person. Volunteers a generally only searching a limited number of sources. The sources are often very poorly designed and difficult to search.