September 22, 2005

Inside the search

Find the missing

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Inside the search for Katrina's missing  

We talked with former Polly Klaas Foundation employee Jenni Thompson, who has been working at both the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and at the National Center for Missing Adults to reunite families separated by Hurricane Katrina. Here is her story.

PKF - Jenni, hundreds of families trapped in rising waters had to make heart-wrenching decisions about which vulnerable family members to send with rescuers and who should wait for the next boat. Many children ended up in completely different places than their parents. Or hospitalized children were evacuated separately from their families. Parents have no idea where they are and are frantic with worry about how they are being taken care of. It's been more than three weeks now since the storm struck. Tell us about the work you've been doing. 

Thompson - It's a pretty extraordinary effort. For the first time in history we have had a request from the Department of Justice for both National Centers to help with a disaster. At the National Center for Missing Children (NCMEC) I've been helping with intake and data entry for the thousands of people calling the Katrina Hotline to report missing children and adults. Before we can refer callers to case management professionals, we have to establish the database. We have to be sure that no calls or details are lost. My work at the National Center for Missing Adults (NCMA) has been to follow up on some of those case calls.

Let me try to give you some idea of the scope of the effort. For the first two weeks at NCMEC they had 40 people on the phones all the time, handling basic intake for both children and adults. During these two weeks NCMEC received more than 23,000 calls. On September 19, missing adult reports alone totaled 8,700. With Hurricane Rita, numbers are going to climb tremendously.

PKF - Here at the Foundation we look at the photographs of Katrina's missing, and our hearts break. There are so many. Do the figures you've cited give an accurate picture of the scope of the problem?

Thompson - Not really. Total numbers of the missing are not being accurately identified in statistics because each phone call can represent between 1 and 20 missing people. Many callers are reporting multiple victims--a whole family missing, or all my kids missing. And frequently when we call back to follow up, the relatives are saying there are other people they can't find and want to add to the report.

PKF - How many children are still separated from their families?

Thompson - I couldn't even guess. I expect it to go much higher before it starts to resolve.

PKF - How are the children being cared for?

Thompson - The good news is they are probably in good hands. Most are in shelters specifically for children or are in foster care. We have heard some stories that there are loving people sitting in shelters holding babies and they don't even know their names.

PKF - How many of the missing do you predict will be found and reunited?

Thompson - People are lost; most are not deceased. Mostly people are out of touch because there has been no phone or power. They just haven't been able to reconnect yet. Things are chaotic now, and may well get more chaotic. There will be a new displacement, and a second wave of evacuations due to Hurricane Rita. But as the phones start to work again you will start to see momentum in finding more people.

PKF - So it's a matter of patiently unraveling the mystery of where in America people have ended up, rather than anticipating tragic outcomes in many of these cases? And then addressing not only the physical but also the psychological challenges they are facing?

Thompson - Absolutely.

PKF - What is a typical day in the search centers?

Thompson - The phones don't stop ringing. Phone bank operators are constantly on the phone, either taking new calls or calling back to get more information, locate pictures, and get them up on the website. Even though a family's photographs may have been lost in the flood, out of area relatives can provide them. By the way, any Kinkos will scan and send photos of the missing to the National Centers. But please be sure to tell people to call the Katrina hotline first, so when the photo arrives it can be matched with the right case history.

PKF - What is hardest for you in this effort?

Thompson - The tragic outcomes. The tragedy of hearing of a family member who should have been able to get out, but was not helped in time. I talked to the granddaughter of a woman who died in a nursing home while waiting for evacuation. The other really difficult thing is I talk to a lot of adult children who have no idea where there parents are. On their last call home mom or dad said I'm sticking out the hurricane, you know I never leave and I've always come through okay. Now they can't get in touch and have no idea what the outcome is and these are their closest loved ones.

PKF - What are the particular risks people may not be aware of?

Thompson - Several things--One concern is the vulnerability of teens who have no adult to look to in the shelters. Another is that school districts have had to accept children without any paperwork, which is an opportunity for a non-custodial parent to take the children and establish a new life without the custodial parent. And finally, there has been a displacement of parolees, including sex offenders. We all need to be sure we're paying close attention to the kids in our area. We need to be keeping our eyes open and communicating with the people around us.

PKF - Do you have a happy story to share?

Thompson - This is my favorite. We make a phone call when the phones come back on and actually reach the missing person directly. We say, "Did you know you were missing?" and they had no idea it was so. So we say, "You need to call your son or daughter." This is beginning to happen more and more. It is starting to pick up momentum because there are services again in the area.

PKF - How can people help?

Thompson - The most important thing is if you do have missing relatives to call the Katrina hotline at 1-888-544-5475. If you do not have enough information to do a missing persons report, as in the case of distant relatives or family friends, be sure to check the Red Cross's database. If you have reported a missing person to the Katrina hotline and later find them on the Red Cross list, please call the Katrina hotline again and tell them who you found and where.

If people feel moved to make a donation to the National Centers they should know that it will help supply immediate needs for the search. They need things like 40,000 new file folders and places to put them. And everything that goes along with that from pencils and pens to the people to use them to the round-the-clock phone service. This is such a major catastrophe--one that will only be compounded by Hurricane Rita--that even big organizations can use help.

PKF - Jenni, the Polly Klaas Foundation chose not to post pictures of missing children on our website and instead recommends that people use the big databases. We are absolutely convinced that the search must be centralized, so that searchers don't have to check through so many lists of missing people. When our caseworkers have had time they have been working through the various lists, trying to find that so-important match. But it's a difficult and time-consuming project. It's good to hear from you that progress is beginning to be made.

Thompson - You made an extremely wise decision to recommend centralization. Dealing with multiple websites makes it so much harder to find people and to know when they are found. This brings up another caution for people to be aware of. Do not fill out missing persons information unless you're talking to people at NCMEC's Katrina Hotline or the Red Cross. A lot of well-meaning people have established private websites to list the missing but we do not know where that information is going. You do not want to be giving personal information like name, address, social security number and photos to strangers.

PKF - Any final words?

Thompson - There is good reason for hope. People are in shelters spread out across across the country, and there are loving people who have welcomed evacuees into their homes all across America. Most people will be found and reunited.

Find the missing
Katrina Hotline at NCMEC: 1-888-544-5475
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children - a family and child locator
International Committee of the Red Cross - a family and child locator

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About the Polly Klaas Foundation

The Polly Klaas Foundation helps find missing children, prevents children from going missing in the first place, and works with policymakers to pass laws like Amber Alert that help keep children safer.

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