HOUSTON – In the midst of trying to find her husband and three youngest
children, hurricane Katrina survivor Lisa Stewart temporarily lost her
three oldest children in the cavernous Astrodome.
She found them Friday at a very human version of a "lost and found"
department – a makeshift center where volunteers work to reunite
children with their parents.
That's the center where children arriving bewildered and parentless get
a big hug and a smile from volunteers. They also have a chance to play
games to take their minds off all they've been through since the
hurricane flooded New Orleans and forced masses to rush for safety in
buses. Some children became separated from their parents during the
exodus.
"When they come in, I grab them and I hug them and I ask them if they
are thirsty," volunteer JoAnna Clark said. "The stories are
unbelievable."
Stewart's trip to the lost children center came after she left her
children aged 6, 7 and 12 with someone on the Astrodome floor so she
could scour the crowd for her husband's familiar face. He had their 3-
and 4-year-olds and 7-month-old. Police found the older children and
took them to the center.
Stewart and her husband had decided in New Orleans to split up the
family to make it easier to manage.
"They were taking the children and the babies and I had six of them,"
Stewart said of the bus preference system at the Superdome. "I didn't
want to take all six, because I knew it would be hard on me with six
children and trying to keep up with them. I took the big ones and he
took the small ones."
Stewart, 30, thought her husband would be on the bus directly behind
her, but "it didn't happen like that."
The volunteers at the center have a routine for the children they see.
In addition to the compassionate welcome, they are asked their name and
any details about when they last saw their mother or father.
"Some of them can give us a name," Clark said. "Some of them can't give
us a name."
"One child was able to say that was his mommy and I said, 'How do you
know?'" Clark recalled of one of the half dozen children reunited with a
parent Friday. "He pulled up her sleeve and it had his name tattooed on
her arm. So we knew that that was his mommy."
If the parents can't be located within a reasonable period of time, the
children are placed in foster homes by Child Protective Services.
"We need to make sure someone is taking care of them, so they are not
there alone," CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin said late Friday. "It is
really providing temporary shelter for these children until their
parents can find them."
Digital photographs are being taken of each child at the center, she
said. The photos and any information obtained will be placed in the
agency's database, as well as the database of the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children.
"These kids need to be with someone familiar after all they have been
through," Olguin said.
Once off the bus, the children are evaluated by doctors and those who
are alone are taken to the center, where they can find toys, stuffed
animals, snacks and volunteers excited to greet them.
The reunions with parents aren't always happy.
Clark said one mother became overwhelmed after her reunion and told them
she couldn't care for her child.
"They are so desperate that some parents have come and said, 'Just take
my child,'" Olguin said. "They just don't know what to do. It is usually
that they just need someone to talk to and they reached their breaking
point. We know that is usually just a cry for help and we talk with
them."
Olguin said the goal is to get as many families back together as
possible.
While there are only a handful of children at the center, the volunteers
have a very long list of children who have been reported missing.
Parents leave their children's names and other vital information, hoping
that they will show up on another bus.
"We have a list of probably 500 kids that are missing," Clark said. "The
list goes on and on and on."
"There are children everywhere out there that are lost," Clark said.
"The scary thing is the list of children we have that are lost – not the
children that are here, but how many people can't find their children."
---
On the Net:
National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children
©2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
