Until the official announcement that the site was ready, our contact with people who had been directly affected by hurricane Katrina had been through people working in shelters. With the announcement, we suddenly rocketed to tens of thousands of visitors to the site each day. And people did not just want to register their missing loved ones or find information, they wanted to communicate directly with someone. They were going through hell and were reaching out for help. I was prepared for how we envisaged the site would be used and what we needed to provide for people, but nothing could have prepared me for the impact of the thousands of messages and emails that started coming in. It is these messages and the people with whom I developed relationships that have changed my life forever.

I was the point of all contact with the site and as we felt it was important that people kept the same contact in any communications, I took on the responsibility of responding to all messages. I did not want people to send their messages and have to wait ages for a reply, so my email software stayed connected, bringing down the messages as they arrived, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even at the peak of incoming messages, it was rare for any person who needed help to have to wait more than a couple of hours before they got a reply. Due to time constraints, the emails that did not get quick replies were the ones from the press and other media. That was a bit of a catch-22 situation - we had the resources available for people who desperately needed them and the media were able to get the word out that the site was there, but I was personally too busy helping people to take time out with media requests. Peter was also extremely busy, but his limited English presented difficulties for US media. We also learned early on that media that expressed a great interest in what we were doing suddenly lost interest when they realised we were not US citizens or even living in the US. I would often find myself waiting for calls from reporters at around 3am or 4am my time, take time to answer their questions, only to find that there was no interest by them in running the story once they learned I was in New Zealand.

Sunday was my daughter’s birthday and late last night I found myself reflecting on how one event can change someone’s life forever. My life changed when my daughter was born. On her last birthday, however, I had no inkling that little more than ten days later my life would change again, almost overnight, and set me on a course I could never have imagined.