BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- More than 2,000 children separated from their parents during the rush to escape Hurricane Katrina are still living in shelters and foster homes.
Nancy McBride, national safety director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune getting children to safety during the evacuation was more important than anything else. She said at some shelters rescue workers simply told parents "to pass all the babies forward."
The center reported that as of Friday afternoon 2,800 children had been reported separated from their families and 760 of those had been reunited with parents or other relatives.
Marketa Garner Gautreau of the Louisiana Office of Community Services said the number of missing children could be overstated because children could be with one parent while the other has not been able to locate them.
