Queries pour in, but often the only answer is silence. Or a busy signal.
"Can Someone Help Me Please? I am a student in Baton Rouge, but I live in New Orleans. I believe my mother, brother and sister are trapped in an attic at 2229 Music St."
The desperate message was posted early Tuesday on the Web site Nola.com, one of many online forums filled with people trying to reach friends and family members living in the path of Hurricane Katrina.
In the storm's hardest-hit areas, phone lines are dead, even under water. Cellular phone service isn't much more reliable. Since Katrina blew ashore Monday morning, Web sites, hotlines and emergency centers have been inundated with inquiries.
Said Ingrid Bailey, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross: "Our system is being overwhelmed."
Some Tampa Bay area residents were still trying frantically to get word on Tuesday.
Many of Anthony D'Avanza's extended family evacuated New Orleans ahead of the storm, traveling to Orlando and Texas. But not everyone is accounted for, he said.
"A lot of them I can't reach. I don't know if they left town or where they are," D'Avanza, 59 of Tampa, said Tuesday.
Anne Murdoch of Countryside said she was "dazed" until early afternoon, when she finally heard from her 22-year-old daughter and learned she had survived the storm.
"It was like a voice from heaven," Murdoch said. "I think I screamed in the office."
Communication with the areas hit by the storm is touch and go at best.
Colleen Parks of St. Petersburg talked repeatedly during the weekend with her parents and brother, who fled New Orleans for St. Francisville, near Baton Rouge.
First they talked by cell phone, then on the land line at the family's motel.
But on Tuesday, nothing.
"I cannot get through to anybody," Parks said. "I've been trying all day. It's "all circuits are busy,' or it's just a busy signal."
Patrick Kimball, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said spotty phone service should be expected.
"Obviously in the areas hardest hit by the storm, communication is very difficult. There have been disruptions to the network," he said.
While urging people to be patient, he suggested sending text messages instead of making voice calls.
"They are a much less significant burden on the (network) traffic," he said. "If calls aren't able to go through, text messages will be held in queue. They don't just disappear if they don't go through immediately."
The local chapter of the Red Cross established a toll-free number for residents to call to obtain information about family members, but that service is limited.
"They use lists of people who are in Red Cross shelters," said chapter spokesman Tim Teahan. "If someone is not in a Red Cross shelter, there essentially is not a way for us to know where they are."
Even so, Teahan said the line was taking 15 to 20 calls an hour.
A newspaper in Gulfport, Miss., set up both a blog and hotline for readers to contact.
Messages left on the Sun-Herald's hotline will be published in print and on the paper's Web site when possible. But late Tuesday afternoon, the hotline was no longer accepting new messages. The inbox was full.
D'Avanza, a New Orleans native who moved to Tampa before high school, said he and his three brothers were watching the haunting television images and calling continually for news about their cousins, nieces and nephews.
"We just keep talking to each other and see who we have reached."
REACHING OUT
Some tips for making contact with friends and family living in Katrina's path:
Call the local Red Cross toll free at (877) 741-1444. Representatives will take information about people you're looking for and check it against lists of people staying at Red Cross shelters. Because of confidentiality rules, shelter rosters are not available to the public. Priority will be placed on inquiries about people with special medical needs.
Try sending text messages instead of calling cell phones. Text messages often get through more quickly, cellular providers say, and they use different channels from voice calls.
When making voice calls, avoid high-traffic times like late afternoon and evening. Also, if you don't get through the first time, wait 10 seconds before redialing.
The Gulfport, Miss., Sun-Herald set up a hotline for residents to call with news they're okay. The paper says it will publish the messages in print and on its Web site. The hotline, at (866) 453-1925, was not accepting new messages Tuesday evening.
ON THE INTERNET
www.cingularhurricaneupdates.com Cingular Wireless is updating the site several times a day, with further tips for wireless communication and the condition of its networks.
Multimedia: Continuing fallout