If ever you have someone missing, as people are now

please remember to give complete information to identify them, contact information, etc.

I have spent hours, between last night and today, working on the Katrina Help Project. This is an attempt to gather all information on various Internet message boards dealing with missing and found Katrina victims into one large, searchable database.

I have been stunned by the number of messages that leave little useful information. Things like "Tell my Uncle Richard to call Patty". Who is your Uncle Richard? Where does he live? What was his phone number? What is YOUR phone number? How could anyone who might not know who you are, but might think they know something about Uncle Richard, ever get in contact with you?

I know people are shocked and stunned, but I have probably been through a couple hundred posts on various boards now, and it's just amazing. People don't think that other people might not know where towns like Picayune, Marrero, Covington are. Precious time is lost as the volunteers have to look up what states these towns might be in. As a Louisiana local, I know where they are, but I can just imagine the dismay of other volunteers in this project trying to enter information, having to try to figure out where places are.

Worse are the people who don't identify themselves as a potential contact for the people they're searching for - or the people who might be helping the people they're searching for. They'll just post "tell him to call me" or "Call Paula". No phone number. No email address. Perhaps their loved one cannot call himself, and has to depend on someone else, who might not know the phone number, to do it.

If ever you have to make a missing persons report or post, please, the more information the better!

It could save lives, and it would certainly save uncertainty and time.

:kick: