Text size:

Answers hard to come by for families kept at distance

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

December 4, 2005

Each day for more than three months, Linda L. Jackson has wondered if her two grown daughters and seven grandchildren, ages 8 to 16, are alive.

She last had contact with them as the wind and rain raged around one daughter's New Orleans apartment Aug. 29. As they spoke by telephone, Hurricane Katrina blasted the apartment door open.

Jackson, who lives in Memphis, was incredulous that her daughters, Felicia and Linda, both in their 30s, were still there. Felicia told her it was too dangerous to go outside. "I love you," Jackson told Felicia before hanging up. "She said, 'I love you too, mama.' I said, 'Give me a call tomorrow if you can.' "

Felicia never called. Neither did Linda, and Jackson's inability to learn their fate further illustrates the plight of many affected by Katrina.

"Just imagine getting up every day, looking at the TV and seeing that they're still finding bodies," said Jackson, a nursing home custodian. "Everything has gone through my mind."

Like many families hardest hit, the Jackson clan is financially strapped and lacks resources that could help them find each other. Regular phone lines were downed, and neither daughter had a cell phone. Neither does their mother, and she recently moved and has a new phone number, which her daughters would not have.

Jackson's sister, Sharon, who lives in California, told Jackson about two months ago that she had heard from one of the daughters, Jackson says. But the sister could not recall where the daughter was supposed to be or if the others were with her.

Since then, Sharon's phone has been cut off. Anyway, Jackson says she is skeptical of the account. "I won't be convinced until I see them or hear from them myself," she says.

She has reported the family missing to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which posted their pictures on its Web site along with the scant information she was able to provide. They show smiling, sweet-faced children, some with ribboned pigtails, some with graduation caps.

Jackson has also checked in with the Red Cross.

So far, the only thing she knows is that the area where her daughters lived was badly flooded.

"I'm just hoping and praying something comes up," she said. "I don't even know what to think. I don't even know what to do."