Positivity: Lost Child Mission Ends with a Stunning Success Record

The “biggest child recovery operation in US history” has ended with a 99.8% success rate:

The last missing child case linked to hurricane Katrina has been resolved.
Four-year-old Cortez Stewart was reunited with her mother last week, nearly six months after the disaster, officials announced on Tuesday.

She was the last child waiting to be returned to her family out of 5,192 reported missing or displaced after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck.

Of those children, all but 12 were found alive following the biggest child recovery operation in US history.

Most of those reported missing were found living with relatives, family friends or other adults, said Bob O’Brien of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The centre worked with the FBI, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US Postal Service, the Red Cross and other agencies to trace the children.

….. Cortez had not seen her family since Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29.

She was with her godmother, Felicia Williams, when the hurricane struck, and they sought refuge in a hotel.

They were rescued by helicopter as floodwaters rose around the building and were eventually taken to Atlanta, Mr O’Brien said.

Cortez’s mother, Lisa Stewart, and her five other children were rescued by boat from their New Orleans home and later taken to the Houston Astrodome.