FEMA Slows Search for Kids From Katrina (Washington Post)

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FEMA Slows Search for Kids From Katrina (Washington Post)

Postby Rigorous Intuition » Sat Dec 24, 2005 11:22 pm

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>FEMA Slows Search for Kids From Katrina</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>By Ceci Connolly<br>Washington Post Staff Writer<br>Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A06<br><br>Efforts to locate 500 children still classified as missing after Hurricane Katrina are stalled because the Federal Emergency Management Agency, citing privacy laws, has <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>refused to share its evacuee database with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, according to investigators tracking the cases.<br><br>Not until the White House and Justice Department intervened earlier this month did Department of Homeland Security officials agree to a compromise that grants FBI agents limited access to information that may provide clues to many of the unresolved cases.<br><br>In recent days, FEMA has released data that helped close 15 cases. Yesterday, after inquiries from The Washington Post, the agency sent the FBI a computer disk with the names of 570,000 evacuees.<br><br>But as the four-month anniversary of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history approaches, congressional leaders, law enforcement authorities and family advocates say FEMA's slow response has meant that many families that could have been reunited this holiday season instead remain apart.<br><br>"We are deeply disappointed by the low priority FEMA assigned to the cases of missing children," Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) wrote yesterday to FEMA's acting director, R. David Paulison. "And while FEMA may not have sole responsibility to investigate cases of missing children, it should do what is in its power to assist other agencies in completing the investigations."<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Officials believe it is likely that many of the 500 children are safe</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, perhaps even in the care of a family member. But a case is not closed until the relative who reported the child missing learns the youngster's whereabouts and is assured the child is unharmed.<br><br>...<br><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122202045.html?nav=rss_politics">www.washingtonpost.com/</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: FEMA Slows Search for Kids From Katrina (Washington Post

Postby Et in Arcadia ego » Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:24 am

I knew this one was going to catch your eye, Jeff. <p></p><i></i>
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FEMA for Kids webpage: Be a Disaster Action Kid! sick sick

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Sun Dec 25, 2005 6:16 pm

Ironically, FEMA has a webpage for kids with projects like<br>"Be a Disaster Action Kid!"<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.fema.gov/kids/images/ic_dizkd.gif">www.fema.gov/kids/images/ic_dizkd.gif</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Observe the similarity to the painting called 'The Scream.'<br>This is psychological warfare on children with the 'Roll, Duck, and Cover' nuclear preparedness cartoon as its heritage.<br><br>After the massive tsunami this page included little games to put a village back together like a jigsaw puzzle.<br><br>Guess FEMA doesn't want to put the American village back together.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.fema.gov/kids/">www.fema.gov/kids/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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FEMA for Kids webpage:A Disaster In Action!!!

Postby Floyd Smoots » Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:21 pm

THIS Is fun???<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Being a Disaster Action Kid is Fun! Disaster Action Kids are prepared! They know what items are needed in a disaster supply kit. They know how to protect their pets during a disaster. They also know what to do during each type of disaster. Being a Disaster Action Kid isn’t easy, but it’s worth it! Get your friends involved, too. All you need to do is read about disasters on this site, do the activities and test your knowledge.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>I started pubic (sic) school in 1954, so I well remember how protected I felt while kneeling in the ceramic tiled hallway while waiting for the bombs to fall. Truth to tell, though, I never felt afraid, or panicked 'cause I was just too young and ignorant to understand the devastation of a WW2 type blockbuster bomb, much less imagine the holocaust of a nuclear weapon. So, from my 6, 7, & 8 year-old perspective, it was as welcome a break from the routine boredom of the classroom as a more frequent & normal fire drill.<br><br>Just goes to show 57, almost 58 year-old me, that the Psycho-Oops!! (sic again) started way earlier than I could even have imagined only a short 5 years ago. Gonna check out this crappola in more depth just about NOW!!!<br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=floydsmoots>Floyd Smoots</A> at: 12/25/05 6:24 pm<br></i>
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Is It The Gubmint, Bill's Little Soft-Micro's, or Just Me??

Postby Floyd Smoots » Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:42 pm

I decided to re-reply to my own post rather than edit again. Under one of the click-on-me icons, titled "How Does It Make You Feel?" (the disaster), there is a series of 6 things that you, the little kid, may or will feel, with simple text and embedded photographs, one per number sequence. When I wished to re-read some of what I thought I had just read and seen, the little numbered icons didn't work for a second look. What's up with THAT on an honest webpage? Even on some of the more suspicious conspiracy sites with text, photos, and even videos, you are allowed to re-look again and again at anything you have previously viewed. This just "smells" WRONG!<br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=floydsmoots>Floyd Smoots</A> at: 12/25/05 6:43 pm<br></i>
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Re: Is It The Gubmint, Bill's Little Soft-Micro's, or Just M

Postby chiggerbit » Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:00 pm

Wow, I have mixed feelings about the FEMA site for kids. I'm even older than Floyd, and I do NOT remember ever practicing for THE BOMB, even though I have learned relatively recently that nuclear bombs were being made only 15 miles away from where I grew up. Maybe the danger never really registered. Who knows? This FEMA site creeped me out at first, but on second thought, maybe it is no big deal to these kids, as it was no big deal to me.<br><br>But, as for missing Katrina kids? Scheeze, surely more could have been done there. That whole thing was one big million gigabyte FU! <p></p><i></i>
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4 months later, hundreds of children missing

Postby Felix » Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:41 pm

<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl122305jbchildren_.8df303b.html">www.wwltv.com/local/stori...f303b.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br>Nearly four months after Katrina, hundreds of children still missing<br><br>08:54 PM CST on Friday, December 23, 2005<br>Dave McNamara / WWL<br> <br><br><br>Controversy brewed Friday over FEMA’s reluctance to release information on evacuees, data that some agencies have said could speed up the process of finding children missing since Hurricane Katrina. <br><br><br>It was not until the FBI began requesting information that FEMA this month turned over the records, which are protected by privacy laws. <br><br><br><br> <br>WWL-TV<br><br>Thousands of evacuees gathered along the I-10 at Causeway in the days following Hurricane Katrina to be airlifted to safety. In the rush to flee New Orleans, and the chaos that followed Katrina, families were torn apart.<br><br>Officials on the front lines of the search have said that those federal privacy rules may have hampered efforts to reunite families. <br><br><br>The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a database with close to 500 names, all of them children whose whereabouts are still unknown. <br><br><br>Walter Fahr, manager of the Louisiana Clearing House for Missing Children, said FEMA has names, addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers of evacuees that could help connect parents with children. <br><br><br>A FEMA spokesperson said the agency could only release personal information to law enforcement such as the FBI. FEMA’s Nicol Andrews said the FBI made its first request for a broad amount of data on December 5 and that information was released three days later. <br><br><br>There was a request for more information that was given to the FBI Thursday. Andrews said there has been no delay, adding that finding children has been a key priority for FEMA. <br><br><br>In Louisiana, Fahr said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has had more expertise than FEMA in finding missing children. <br><br><br>The national center is still working to locate 485 children who are either missing or out of touch with their parents or guardian. <br><br><br>In addition to that work currently being done, FEMA has been operating its own missing persons hotline based in Baton Rouge. <br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: FEMA Slows Search for Kids From Katrina (Washington Post

Postby Sepka » Mon Dec 26, 2005 3:00 pm

Despite the name, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children isn't affiliated with the government. They're a non-profit corporation. The government has no more business releasing information about missing (or any other) children to them without the parents' or guardians' consent than they would to any other group that phoned and said that they wanted to help.<br><br>-Sepka the Space Weasel <p></p><i></i>
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