485 Kids Missing Since Katrina -- FEMA Refuses to Share Data

[AtomicKitten]

It's almost unbelievable that this could be happening in our country.

Nearly four months after Katrina, hundreds of children still missing

Excerpt:
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.

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.

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.


http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl122305jbchildren_.8df303b.html

[nicknameless]

1. So families don't have access to the information they need to find

their missing children?!

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.

It was not until the FBI began requesting information that FEMA this month turned over the records, which are protected by privacy laws.

Officials on the front lines of the search have said that those federal privacy rules may have hampered efforts to reunite families.

... Defies comment.