Katrina Family Rights To Information

A Petition to Congress
Hurricane Survivors Need FEMA's Data, Not its Silence

News reports say that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is
refusing to release its data on Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims to
other agencies and to the victims' families. FEMA must cooperate with
others to help families reunite and bring needed aid to the most
vulnerable storm victims, many of whom are still missing.

While FEMA refuses to tell families where their lost members are, it
also refuses to tell the states where their registered sex offenders and
parolees are.

To keep families apart and set sex predators at liberty under the guise
of "privacy" is a mockery of both legitimate privacy issues and of the
family values the citizens of this country hold dear.

Congress allows commercial marketers to mine data on average citizens
and foist unwanted advertising on any citizen who doesn't go to
considerable effort to "opt out" of advertising schemes. Yet in this
life-and-death situation, FEMA expects infants, the developmentally
disabled, Alzheimer's patients, stroke victims, the elderly, and the
infirm to specifically "opt in" if they are to be reunited with their
families and caregivers.

Nursing homes and hospitals in New Orleans still have not located all
their patients. The state of Louisiana cannot find 51 foster children
and their foster parents. An untold number of families are desperately
searching for elderly and ill relatives who are unable to speak for
themselves. Families still search for loved ones who lie among the
hundreds of dead at St. Gabriel morgue, whose names FEMA will not release.

FEMA says in its mission statement that one of its major roles is to
"minimize suffering and disruption caused by disasters." It promises
that, "FEMA will provide timely and appropriate disaster assistance to
hasten the recovery of individuals and communities." Sharing
information is a crucial part of the recovery assistance FEMA must now
provide. The lack of information is causing untold suffering.

FEMA promises that its data collection and Information Technology system
"will serve as the Nations portal for emergency management information
before, during, and after disaster strikes... FEMA will provide a
single entry point through which users can access a broad spectrum of
relevant emergency management information. This effort will take several
forms and will require that FEMA become a knowledge manager with
responsibility for coordinating and integrating the broad spectrum of
emergency management information available to government and the public."

The FEMA information "portal" seems to have morphed into a black hole.
Please, hold FEMA accountable for the duties it commits to in its own
mission statement. Other organizations and the families need the
information FEMA holds about the missing and the dead.