Internet Site Helps to Keep Track of Survivors

An improvised Internet site for victims of Venezuela’s killer floods has become the most popular site in the South American country.

Thousands of Rodriguez, Garcia and Hernandez surnames populate the https://www.rescate2000.net.ve site, but the “location” category is blank in most of the entries.

As many as 30,000 may have perished during two days of torrential rain, landslides and floods that demolished several small towns on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast last week.

Of the 150,000 believed to have lost their homes, 30,000 survivors have been registered on the improvised site.

“We are getting almost 1.5 million visits per day,” said Carmen Delgado, an executive at the CANTV phone monopoly. “It is the most visited Web site in Venezuela.”

The site provides links to several databases set up since last Thursday by companies and the armed forces.

“The most important thing is to create a database to help the government register the number of people in evacuation centers,” Delgado said.

“It may not be perfect, but the site is interactive and it is connecting evacuation centers in real time,” added CANTV services director Miguel Benatuil.

About 20 people are registering names of the rescued and missing on laptop computers, while CANTV has set up free connections in the large stadiums and barracks housing the evacuees.