Press Releases
Date: 9/4/2005
Contact: Denise Bottcher or Roderick Hawkins at 225-342-9037
FAMILIES SEPARATED DURING KATRINA TO REUNITE
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES NEWS RELEASE
Sept. 4, 2005
FAMILIES SEPARATED DURING KATRINA TO REUNITE
BATON ROUGE -- Seven children who were separated from their families during a roof-top rescue in New Orleans have been identified and will soon be reunited with their mothers.
Within hours of establishing a national hotline and website to locate children missing during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the children were identified and their parents located.
The children, ranging in age from 5 months to 6 years, were rescued from their apartment roof-tops by helicopter and taken to a shelter in Baton Rouge. Their parents were later air-lifted and taken to a shelter at Kelly USA, the former Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio.
When the children arrived at the special children's shelter Saturday, Department of Social Services employees photographed them. One, a two-year-old girl saw her likeness and said, "Gabby." That information was included with her photo and posted on the website: www.missingkids.com.
At about the same time, her mother reported that her child "Gabby" was missing to a Texas child protection services worker who then relayed the information to the National Association for Missing and Exploited Children, and the connection was made.
"By the grace of God, the system worked in this case," said Joe Newport of "Team Adam" with the NCMEC.
DSS officials immediately began making arrangements to reunite the families, and plan to fly the children to San Antonio Sunday afternoon through Angel Flight.
The children and their parents are: Zaria Love, 3, and Tyreek Love, 14 months, and Felicia Love, mother; Deamonte Love, 6, and Darynael Williams, 5 months, Katrina Williams, mother; Degahney Carter, 3 and Keyshawn Carter; Gabrielle (Gabby) Alexander, 2, and Marcaleena Alexander, mother; and Leewood Moore Jr., 2, and Yawanda Byrd, mother.
For information about missing children, call (800) THE LOST or visit the website at www.missingkids.com.
--30--
* National Next of Kin Registry
Nonprofit organization: Register people missing in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
* Salvation Army's Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) Activated
Send an online request to locate missing family and friends. If you can't connect to the site immediately, please try again.
* MSNBC News
Non-government: Blog links for Katrina survivors and their families.
* "I'm Okay" Board
Non-government site: New Orleans channel 4WWWL-TV posts messages for family members.
* Yahoo's Family Message Boards
Non-government site: Message boards categorized by city, colleges, relief centers and more.
* Persons Missing in New Orleans Contact Site
Non-government site: Electronic bulletin board.
* Red Cross Alert for Persons with Emergency Medical Conditions
The Red Cross is only accepting phone calls to search for missing persons in these emergency circumstances: insulin dependant diabetics, oxygen dependant, dialysis patients, blind, recent heart attack or stroke victims, mobility challenged, broken leg, foot or ankle, or paralyzed.
* WDSU, New Orleans, LA
Non-government site: More messages for and from missing people.
* Safe List of Family Members
Non-government site: CNN's list of people reported safe and their current location.
* Missing Persons Board
Non-government site: By NowPublic
* Relief Information for U.S. Military
For families of deployed Army National Guard and all military branches
* View Maps of Flooded Areas and Closed Roads
View FEMA's maps to find passable areas in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
* International Red Cross's Locate People Lists
In cooperation with the American Red Cross; more lists provided.
* Georgia Tech Survivor Data Base
This non-government resource claims to have more than 13,000 names to search.
The White House is furious by recent comments made by congressman Charlie Melancon in the Times Picuyunne, Rogers has learned.
Melancon told the paper that the secret service closed the airspace for the President's visit, so no rescue helicopter could rescue while he was there. Well placed insiders claim that this is patently false, and that reporters traveling with the President can corroberate this.
The White House has repeatedly asked the Times Picayunne to racant, but they have not.
The Dead Pelican was seeking more details from the White House...
Developing....
September 04, 2005