|
'Where are you?' resonates on Web sites
By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer
(Updated Thursday, December 30, 2004, 10:06 AM)
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - On hundreds of Web sites
worldwide, the messages are brief but poignant:
"Missing: Christina Blomee in Khao Lak" or "Where are
you?" Some are nothing more than names, ages,
nationalities. Others list details of where loved ones
were last seen. Some have pictures of the missing.
All convey the aching desperation of people from Italy
to the United States seeking news about family or
friends caught in the earthquake and tsunami waves that
ravaged southern Asia.
Web sites and blogs have become the announcement boards
and lost and founds for a disaster that has left many
thousands of people unaccounted for, including 2,000 to
3,000 Americans and thousands more Europeans and other
non-Asian visitors to the region.
On the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Web site, dozens of
people posted notes seeking someone.
"Does anyone have news of my colleague Chuck Kearcik and
his wife Melinda and children Candice and Charlie (US
citizens working in Kuwait, vacationing in the Maldives)?"
asked Andy of Kuwait City.
Cheryl Boehm of Houston searched for her father, Jesse
L. Adams. "He is an American citizen and is retired
living on South Pattaya Beach. Please contact me with
any information as I have no way to find or communicate
with him right now! Please help me find my Dad!!"
Another, Jaclyn Higgs of California, pleaded for help in
finding her family. "I am desperately trying to contact
my four-year old son Aidan Ashburn-Higgs and his father
Jeffrey Ashburn who both flew into Thailand on Sunday. I
have not heard from them since they left the airport in
San Francisco. If you see this, please let me know you
are safe."
Others sent text messages from across continents in a
bid to find those who are missing.
In Sweden and Denmark, mobile phone operators stopped
charging for mobile calls to and from Southeast Asia for
48 hours to make it easier for survivors to get in touch
with their families. "We thought it would be a nice move
from cellular phone companies," said Robert Neimanas of
the Swedish group Telia's branch in Denmark.
The Swedish companies also sent text messages to all
Swedish-registered phones in Thailand asking subscribers
to call their families or the Swedish Embassy.
The State Department urged American travelers to get in
touch with loved ones back home. "Call your mother,"
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said
Wednesday.
In the Nordic nations, blogs and Internet bulletin
boards were rife with queries about people among the
2,700 missing Finns, Norwegians, Swedes and Danes.
"Veronika Priebe Jakobsson and her family? They were in
Thailand? Has anyone heard from them?" asked one post on
the Phuket Disaster Message Board.
Another message, from Glen Barlow, said: "We are looking
for Nigel, Lotta and little Alec from Sweden." It adds
details about Briton Nigel Atterbury, his Swedish
partner Liselott Hallberg and their 3-year-old son,
Alec.
One of the lucky few, Barlow posted another message less
than six hours later saying the family had been found
and was flying home.
Valerio Natale, a 14-year-old Italian, started a Web
site a year ago about "The Simpsons" television show,
but this week he replaced it with a site for Italians
searching for missing relatives.
"I just wanted to help," said the teenager, who lives in
the village of Amelia in Italy's central Umbria region.
"Everyone has to make a contribution when something like
this happens."
He said 20 people in Italy had contacted him by
Wednesday asking for information about missing
relatives.
Some used the Internet to link names with photos,
sometimes with a happy ending.
On Wednesday, a Swedish toddler, Hannes Bergstroem, was
reunited with his injured father at a Thai hospital,
days after being found wandering alone in the wreckage.
The 2-year-old's uncle had spotted the child's photo
posted on the Web by another hospital and claimed him
Tuesday, setting up the reunion with Hannes' father,
Marko Karkkainen.
But Hannes' mother, Suzanne Bergstroem, was still among
some 5,000 people missing in Thailand.
It's an example of the reach and immediacy of modern
technology. With cell phones, thousands of people in the
disaster zone were able to send text messages to
newspapers and television stations getting word back
home.
For people with a less personal interest, the Internet
also provided images and news of the destruction,
including firsthand accounts from bloggers who lived
through the waves and quickly posted pictures and
descriptions.
One site, www.2bangkok.com, filed nonstop reports about
the disaster, offering links to news reports, pictures
from Thai television and other blogs, as well as photos
found on the Internet.
Authorities also were using cell phones to track
people's whereabouts. In Denmark, the National Police
said Wednesday that Danish telecom companies would
provide information about all cellular phone
communications between Denmark and Thailand, Indonesia
and Sri Lanka between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3.
"This will allow us to identify people and find out when
and what calls they make to map their whereabouts,"
Niels-Otto Fisker said. "It will be a piece in the huge
jigsaw puzzle."
Some people turned to blogs to raise money and awareness
of the disaster.
A group of people in Bombay, India, started a blog,
http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com, to list contact numbers,
addresses and links for those interested in helping.
"We give them the whole resources, avenues to contribute,
volunteer," said Dina Mehta, a 37-year-old consultant.
The site also provides a place for readers to post
messages and replies about those missing. And it has
contributors from across the disaster zone, including
one in Sri Lanka who updates by sending text messages
from his cell phone.
"We're not really doing the relief work. It's just
intended to be a house for all resources, so people
don't have to run around looking everywhere," Mehta said.
"Or if someone lost a relative or has a missing
(relative), we wanted to be able to give them a voice."
Amazon.com is asking its users to make a donation for
disaster relief through its Web site. America Online
said it started a site for its members to make donations
to relief agencies, and said the company itself had
donated $200,000 through the American Red Cross.
The International Red Cross started its own Web site
Wednesday to help people track down survivors.
It has sections for Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and
India, which were the hardest hit by the quake and ocean
surges. Most registrations on the first day were by
people seeking missing from the Nordic countries,
Britain, Germany, France and the United States,
particularly California.
---
Associated Press reporters Anick Jesdanun in New York
and Matteo Cruccu in Rome contributed to this story.
|
Steve White, Thailand
Leif Hellström, Sweden
Andreas Hoistad, Norway
