WP: Officials Lower Tally Of 'Missing' Katrina Children

[DeepModem Mom]

Officials Lower Tally Of 'Missing' Children
Some Have Been Found With Relatives

By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 21, 2005; Page A10

Authorities trying to track down more than 2,600 children in Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama still missing three weeks after Hurricane Katrina believe that most of them are not really "missing."

Rather, authorities said, the vast majority of these children are "lost" -- separated from a parent or guardian during the rush to rescue hurricane victims from rooftops and shelters, when families were divided because of lack of space on a bus or helicopter.

"They're not missing in the traditional sense," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has taken on the task of finding the children and reuniting families.

The Alexandria-based center is working with sheriffs, police officers and FBI agents from across the country who have volunteered to help with the enormous caseload, and is partnering with CNN, which has been airing photos of missing children. As of yesterday, the center had resolved 966 out of 3,600 Hurricane Katrina cases, Allen said.

The number of cases continues to grow, Allen said, as more families learn where they can report missing children. The center has logged about 17,000 calls to a Katrina victim toll-free hotline [phone]) and receives an average of 1 million hits a day from around the world on its Web site ( http://www.missingkids.com ). The site includes links to sites and numbers for those looking to locate adults among the hundreds still unaccounted for in Louisiana and Mississippi....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001626.html

[Lochloosa]

1. Bull Shit!

[DeepModem Mom]

2. I'm also worried about the accuracy of this information. nt

[Sabriel]

3. They're not "missing." They're just not "around."

We can't "find" them, but they're sure not "missing."

How long does it take to find them? Put out an Adam alert, for heaven's sake.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. I would love to prove them right on 'missing' vs. 'lost' but..

It is too early to make such a statement IMO. Finding the first 1000 was the easy part. It's the last thousand I'd worry about.

I do find it odd that they feel the need to change the language here. The 'missing' category includes kids who disappear via noncustodial parental abduction, stranger abduction, and ones who vanish in snowstorms or woods. 'Lost' kids are missing, aren't they?

[Megahurtz]

5. Cover up,

deny, deny. Same old shit.

[Miss Chybil]

7. Sometimes, conspiracy theories just don't work. A lot of these

kids are with caregivers other than their parents, i.e. grandparents, etc. and the families have not been able to find and contact each other. Yes, there are going to be a lot of dead children, but a good number of them, fate willing, will be reunited with their families. I don't get how 100 missing children vs. 200 missing children, (just as an example) is any different. One is too many. Fudging the numbers is a ridiculous idea and accusing the people who are working so hard to reunite these families of playing politics, does them and their work a diservice. I bet if you call up the missing children hotline, you might find a nice, good, upstanding Democrat there trying to help out. Why don't we wait until the dust settles before we start making accusations.

[all.of.me]

6. wouldn't have happened if ...

...'officials' had been organized in the first place. assholes. do we have that asshole smilie yet?!?!!?

[booksenkatz]

9. Snag mine, genevat

Assholes is an understatement, but you are absolutely correct!

[KittyWampus]

11. wish i had an award to give out for best smilie of the day.

[all.of.me]

12. awesome. thanks!

yeah. is there a stronger word than asshole? i don't think there is for describing these people.

[snappyturtle]

8. Missing? Lost?

what's the difference? If the missing children are not with their parents---Why do we keep giving this bungling group more rope? For heaven's sake it's been over three weeks!!! The phones work for the most part don't they? I saw a couple say their children were loaded onto a helicopter and they were told another helicopter would soon follow for them. Soon turned into much,MUCH later and they couldn't find their kids! Why wouldn't they have evacuated one child with one parent and then back for the other two? At least the children would have had one responsible parent accompanying them! AND, the parents weren't told where their children were being evacuated to! Keep the masses scrambling so they don't see the man behind the curtain! :cry:

[Roland99]

10. Parents Continue Frantic Search For Children Missing After Katrina

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=3878849

Rhonda Ledet scoured the Internet looking for her 16-year-old son, BJ. She was evacuated to the Wayside Shelter in Louisville before the storm, but BJ rode it out in their hometown outside New Orleans.

<...>

Ernie Allen, a Louisville native and Manual High School graduate, is the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the group in charge of trying to find the lost kids.

He says it's a mammoth task, and they are literally going from shelter to shelter in their search.

So far, 966 children have been located. But more than 2600 remain missing.

Unfortunately, Allen says "there is some number of these children who, reality tells us, probably did not survive the storm."

Some decided to stay behind. Might have been with friends, or boyfriends/girlfriends, or other family members.

Sad situation, though.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

13. Taking lessons from Jebbie's DCF?

Remember all those missing foster children, like Rilya Wilson? Were they simply "misplaced"?

[daleo]

14. Lets hope they are not "missing" as in dead

But this claiming a priori that they are just lost is just spin. I think people would be making very great efforts to locate "lost" kids, and they would be quickly re-united with parents. Unless the parents are gone.

[stickdog]

15. I wonder if Osama and the WMDs are "missing" or just "lost". (nt)