From AlterNet:
As Katrina fades from public attention, the pain of separation continues for families wrenched apart during the upheaval of the evacuation.
There are some happy outcomes for sure. Twelve-year-old Emil, 8-year-old Ronell, 8-year-old Ronald and 3-year-old Treneka were separated from their parents when the family left the New Orleans Superdome in September. The parents hoped the children were with friends but could not find them for two weeks. Finally a social worker and staff of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) located the children, who were staying with family friends in Dallas. Those children were reunited with their parents in a relatively short period, but now two and a half months after Hurricane Katrina, there are still nearly 1,300 missing children registered with the NCMEC.
Why?
Because, like with those women who suffered rapes and sexual abuse, there has been no uniform accounting of evacuees who have been moved to other locations. It is almost as if these children, like their parents, were deemed unimportant.
Bob O’Brien, director of NCMEC Missing Children’s Division, said the number of missing children is so high partly because of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding Katrina. The NCMEC usually allows only parents and legal guardians to register children. But given the chaos of the relief effort, the organization opened up the registry to other relatives such as aunts, uncles and grandmothers.
The NCMEC registered 4,828 Katrina children in the weeks following the hurricane, and has resolved 73 percent of those cases. As of Nov. 8, however, 1,286 children had yet to be united with loved ones. Sixty-three and a half percent were listed as black in the registry. That is consistent with the 2000 New Orleans census figures of 67 percent black.
Some of the 1,286 children were listed as lost not by parents and guardians, but by relatives such as grandmothers. It is possible that some children may be with parents or other family. Still, the numbers of children missing are high by any measure and can be attributed in part to the chaos of the evacuation and the lack of records.
Over 411,000 people were dispersed by the hurricane and subsequent flooding. They have, in turn, were brought (or dumped) at other temporary locations at least 2 or 3 times.
Some of the missing children may be among the dead and yet to be identified because of the decomposition of water-logged bodies. The NCMEC is taking DNA samples from parents to aid in the identification. As of Nov. 1, there were still 140 bodies unidentified in the New Orleans morgue. Most of these bodies, however, are likely to be adults.
The 140 bodies, however, are not to be confused with the hundreds of unclaimed bodies at St. Gabriel, near Baton Rouge.
Unfortunately, there is also a possibility that some of those missing children may have been kidnapped. Four thousand registered sex offenders were also evacuated with the children. These sex offenders have not yet re-registered in the states to which they were assigned. No offender, however, has been caught with a child in their keeping. Not yet.
Contact the following regarding reuniting children with parents:
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), http://www.missingkids.com
Red Cross, http://www.katrinasafe.org
Craig’s List, http://www.craigslist.org
There are also 28 other organizations with webpages listing missing children.
This is as crazy as it is heartbreaking.
I really like your diaries on Katrina. They are so informative. I’ve often wondered if there could be a special Katrina-related section on the site b/c of the varied issues: survival stories, race, infrastructure, class, environment, local/state/national politics, urban planning/development (or lack thereof, or done maliciously), etc.
There are just so many facets to Katrina. If we could put them all in one place (and I recognize a search function works well, but still) as to be easily accessible to Boo Tribbers and lurkers, then I think it would be helpful. It would also be easy to compile everything for the year anniversary of the this tragedy–to remind ourselves of where we were and what is left to finish.
Just my $0.2.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/22/134855/64
It’s been recommended all day long and it’s now only disappeared.
Stunning, depressing numbers. The percentage of pedophiles is going to be much smaller than 4000. I always felt that the MSM was over-hyping the threat.
The piss-poor accounting here is truly disgusting. Family values indeed!
for continuing to cover this issue. I read recently that over 4000 people are still missing. I’m guessing there are possibly hundreds of bodies that were washed out to sea. The missing people, and children issue, is also an issue of the difficulty in tracking everyone down.
The way that people were evacuated seperated families, and children from families. People were placed on buses and planes without a clue as to where they were going, and no say in the process either.
My goddess, if this doesn’t demonstrate the need for a civil defense system that, like Cuba, is imbedded in the neighborhoods, than nothing will.
6,644 still unaccounted for after Katrina
Does anyone have any idea how many fatalities have been documented, estimated or otherwise tabulated? It seems like this is sort of swept under the soggy carpet.