Call for Pagers, Phones

Bobby Cuza

September 16, 2001

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is collecting the cellular phone and pager numbers of people missing in the World Trade Center wreckage for use in trying to locate them.

FEMA spokesman James McIntyre asked families to call 877-348-8579, the wireless emergency response team for the rescue effort, to leave the numbers.

Many families have been paging and calling their loved ones since Tuesday, without luck. McIntyre said officials want to keep trying the numbers as debris is moved. Lucent Technologies has "cutting-edge radio frequency sniffers" to try to track down the phones and pagers, FEMA said.

The FEMA number for people seeking federal financial assistance, crisis counseling and help in meeting funeral expenses is 800-462-9029. To apply for disaster relief, callers should be prepared for a 20- to 30-minute interview and have handy their Social Security number, address, phone numbers where they can be reached, family's gross income and insurance information.