“Katrina Missing” List Reduced to Fewer Than 500
Submitted By: 	N.O.V.A March 2006
Source:		Times Picayune 05-02-2006


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Baton Rouge – Sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

Several months ago, officials with the Louisiana Department of Health and
Hospitals estimated that, eventually, approximately 500 people would remain
missing due to Hurricane Katrina. This estimate was based on the number of
calls that continued to be made to the National Find Family Assistance
Center (now the Louisiana Family Assistance Center). It was believed at the
time that as many as 500 bodies had either washed away or that people had
simply vanished on purpose.

Today, statistics supplied by the Louisiana Family Assistance Center show
only 458 people remain on the “missing” list. This is down from more than
11,600 initial missing reports that were filed in the weeks and months
following the nation’s worst flood. It is also a reduction in the number of
missing people since April 5 when it was announced that only 1,000 people
remained missing.

“The fact that staff at the Center have been able to locate 500 people in
less than a month shows the dedication of these incredible people,” said Dr.
Louis Cataldie, State Medical Examiner. “They continue to work long days,
trying to piece together information and evidence that someone might still
be alive.”

Even though people have been on the job for more than seven months, everyone
still takes personal satisfaction whenever the bell is rung; signifying
another person found alive says Cataldie

“Everyone at the Center stops working and claps when they hear that bell,”
he says. “I know there are many who say to themselves a quick prayer of
thanks when that sound rings out. It’s this success that keeps us all
working to reunite families with missing loved ones.”

Cataldie also said that reaching and breaking the 500 barrier was important
because it reminded everyone that there are people still to be found.

“We honestly believed that hundreds, maybe as many as 500 people who were
missing, would never be found. That was an estimate based on the reports we
were hearing late last year, and the rate at which we were able to track
people down,” he explained.

He add that increased media attention, increased publicity of the toll-free
telephone number for people to call and the confidence that comes from
successfully finding people has all added up to improved success.

People who wish to report someone missing as well as those who initially
reported someone else as missing and have since located them should contact
the Louisiana Family Assistance Center at 1-866-326-9393.