This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Weeks after Hurricane Katrina sent families fleeing in different directions, the American Red Cross is expected today to launch an easier-to-use Web site to reunite those still looking for a loved one.
The group's Family Links database site, criticized as difficult to use and designed for overseas disasters, began sharing its names with Microsoft's http://www.katrinasafe.com on Monday.
With more than 200,000 names from the Red Cross and a growing number from other sources, http://www.katrinasafe.com stands to be the best way yet for Katrina evacuees to connect. The site will be searchable by Web search engines, and if the person being sought hasn't registered, an automatic e-mail or call can alert searchers when they do.
Jeanine Moss, a volunteer spokesperson for the Red Cross in Washington, D.C., said the new "super site" will make it quicker and easier for people fanning out across the country to connect.
"This is going to be the largest, most comprehensive, easy to use site out there," she said.
While helping evacuees earlier this month at Camp Williams in Bluffdale, former Red Cross volunteer Mark Gardiner of Salt Lake City became frustrated with the initial Red Cross site. Retired from the information technology field, Gardiner made 30 matches and helped reunite a husband and wife, but mostly used his own Internet searches.
Among his complaints about Family Links: Fields for last and first names are not separate, making it difficult to search. There is no quick way to update a listing, with a new address or news of a connection. Birth dates are listed in an international format - day first, month second. The site can be too jammed during peak daytime hours.
"People far from home have a lot of things to do other than to try to track down a match," he said. "Some of them aren't even familiar with computers."
In Atlanta, software designer John Galloway had launched his own Katrina Data Project, inspired while watching a television news reporter grill a government official about why there was no central way for people to find one another. Sites like his sprang up on the Internet as cyber volunteers used their talents to help, and media outlets joined in.
Until now, however, the Red Cross was not releasing its lists of names for other sites to use.
Galloway now is combining and standardizing data for http://www.katrinasafe.com, which unites the Red Cross data with information from sites created all over the country.
"We are working to make the Red Cross the biggest source of records," Galloway said.
Galloway's http://www. katrinadataproject.com had encouraged individual sites and lists to use a uniform format and keep security in mind. He is now working with former Federal Trade Commissioner Mozelle Thompson to encourage those using and creating search sites to consider fraud concerns, and think twice before posting a name in connection with other personal information, such as a birth date or names of minor children.
Moss said privacy was a concern the Red Cross had to weigh before releasing its names.
"You absolutely have to respect people's privacy for this information, and whatever it is that you create, technologically you have to make sure this information is only used for this purpose," she said. "It's not just ordering up a Web site; it was a very thoughtful and well-designed process."
In Seattle, programer Rob Kline - instrumental in Web efforts to unite families after the Indonesian tsunami last year - sees Internet sites helping Katrina victims slowly getting onto the same page.
"There was some duplication of effort, but things are starting to consolidate and hold together," said Kline. "I think [the increasing number of individual lists] created positive pressure on the Red Cross to join us. In these sorts of things, you have to have to hold the reins loosely and let it shake out. That is the nature of the Internet."
When Katrina hit, Kline helped set up what's known as a wiki - a Web site that allows anyone to add to or delete from it - at http://www.katrinahelp.info. Many volunteers worked on a previous tsunami wiki, he said.
Safety concerns, he said, are an ongoing discussion.
"It's just another example of how technology can sometimes outstrip our ability to process the ethical or safety implications behind what's developing," he said.
"The tendency is 'Yes, the disaster is so great let's get this out and going,' but I don't think that's a good thing."
New Web site
The American Red Cross is merging its information on Katrina evacuees with names from other sources at http://www.katrinasafe.com.Find your loved ones online
The registry lists 55 evacuee names, along with names of persons they are looking for. Thus far, the list has led to six contacts between evacuees and missing persons, via American Red Cross officials working at Camp Williams.
Evacuees interested in having their information listed should fill out a Katrina Connections card, located at various locations at Camp Williams, and place it in one of the collection boxes at the shelter.
The Salt Lake Tribune has been maintaining a registry of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who have been brought to Camp Williams and who have reported to the newspaper that they are looking for loved ones.
Their names and details are posted on a Web page accessible by visiting The Tribune's homepage, at http://www.sltrib.com, and clicking on the Refugees in Utah icon.