This may be a little OT, but I feel it is relevant in that many of the
unaccounted for, unidentified, and missing people from Hurricane
Katrina are affected by AD or another form of dementia.
Another member here and I have been assisting families affected by
Hurricane Katrina in locating missing family members. Many have been
found through the efforts of volunteers working with families in
searching. Some of us are concentrating on the elderly and nursing home
residents from the Gulf Coast.

Among those found, many were located through phone calls and internet
searches.  Shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, Social Service, Home
Health agencies, etc mainly throughout the south, but also in other
regions are being contacted in efforts to find these people.  Agencies
have previously been wonderful about assisting with these searches.
There are many missing with cognitive limiting impairments which
prevent them from being able to provide identifying information about
themselves to those trying to help.  There are too many children unable
to provide information still not reunited with their families. Many of
those had no identifying wrist bands or other means of ID on them when
found. Many of those from facilities were evacuated with no medical
records which further complicates providing proper care for them until
they are identified.

FEMA has now placed restrictions on information which can be provided
by agencies assisting Katrina survivors. While we all value our
privacy, imagine being one of the families desperately searching for
loved ones. If agencies are restricted from providing lists of people
in their shelters, confirm that someone is there or post photos of
those unidentified families will continue to suffer the agony of not
knowing where their loved ones are or if they are even alive after all
this time. Now with another hurricane heading towards the US, there
potentially could be many more, although Fla seems better prepared for
these type events than NO was.

For 3 weeks, some of us searched for a resident with very limited
communication & ADLs who was missing from a NO nursing home. We finally
found her (and 49 others) that were evacuated. Neither the city of NO
which operated this home or the LA Nursing Home Assoc. knew where those
residents were or if they were alive or not. This was weeks after
Katrina too. Fortunately, they were safe. Another couple we searched
for was located but had not survived. Just last week, I was working
with a man trying to locate his sister's body.  He had "heard" she was
one of the dead from St Rita's Nursing Home in New Orleans.  With
agencies no longer able to give out information, families like these
are having a more difficult time than they already were locating loved
ones.

Please read and consider signing the petition located at the link
below.  It is a request for Congress to direct FEMA to once again open
the lines of communication between agencies and families searching for
their missing children, parents, grandparents, or spouses.

Have a great week.  Many thanks for taking time to read this.
Petition link below.

http://new.petitiononline.com/j120fran/petition.html
ncgen