"SHE'S ONLY 2," the message reads. "If any information on Veronique Verrett is known please contact us." A long series of phone numbers and other contact information follows in this note posted Tuesday to the message boards of the Nola.com Web site.

Veronique is Jakouri Williams' goddaughter. He says he last talked to the girl's mother — his cousin — at 3 p.m. central time on Sunday, as Hurricane Katrina drew near. His cousin had decided to ride out the storm with other family in East New Orleans, and at that point, regretted the choice.

But that's all Williams knows. Since then, the telephone has been useless, and Williams has no idea what became of his family. So like thousands of other people around the country, Williams has turned to the Internet for help. But so far, he hasn't heard anything.

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In a scene eerily similar to the aftermaths of Sept. 11, and the Asian tsunami, a series of Web sites have quickly formed aimed at helping concerned family and friends find loved ones left missing by Hurricane Katrina. For those frustrated by downed telephone lines and a lack of information offered by agencies helping victims in the area, the Internet has become a method of last resort.

People posting the messages offer working phone numbers, e-mail addresses and pictures of friends, hoping someone with information might see the notes and call or send an e-mail.

Collectively, there are already well over 1,000 posts on about a dozen sites, each crammed with heartbreaking stories. Some of these Web sites are long-established ones such as Craigslist or Nola.com, which is affiliated with The Times-Picayune, New Orleans' daily newspaper. Other Web sites, with names such as HurricaneKatrinaSurvivors.com, have sprung up ad hoc to help survivors find each other.

Donna Boykins is searching for her son, Anthony Bernard Boykins, who was incarcerated in a county jail on Perdido Street in New Orleans.

"I haven't heard what they did with the inmates," she said. "I just know the whole city is a disaster area."

So Boykins went online to search for answers, and posted a note on the message boards of NowPublic.com, a user-driven news site. Soon after, she heard from a news reporter who pointed her to a photograph of inmates on a highway overpass in New Orleans. But it provided little comfort: The picture wasn't detailed enough for Boykins to pick out her son. Her search continues.

A human face
Michael Tippett, CEO of NowPublic.com, says he was in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, and remembered all the frantic Web site posts after the attack. His site is generally devoted to posts about current events, but he set up a special Katrina Missing Persons section over the weekend, anticipating the problems Katrina might bring.

"I knew it would be a painful process to go through, but at least it’s given people an opportunity to reconnect with people who have gone missing," Tippett said. "It really puts a human face on something so incalculably large."

Most of the 100 to 200 people who've posted to the site were still looking for answers as of late Tuesday, Tippett said.

But there was at least one happy ending. Orlando Rodriguez, who had posted to the site looking for his friends Armando and Librada Fandino of Kenner, La., posted again late Tuesday to pass along the good news that the family had safely made their way to Shreveport.

CONTINUED: Survivors post 'I'm OK' notices

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