Daily Advertiser creates one of the first searchable databases of evacuees

Daily Advertiser metro editor Todd Billiot and Tiffany Wyatt, a designer with The Times of Acadiana, headed up an effort to collect evacuees' photos and names. With 6,700 entries, they created Operation Connection, one of the first searchable online databases of Katrina evacuees. One reader wrote the Daily Advertiser, "(I'm) happy to inform you that we have located my spouse and little brother ... I can't thank you enough for your warm support." The Advertiser's editor is proud of her staff and Operation Connection."The Web site has so much to offer," Denise Richter says. "This was a way for us to bring families together again." The story was written by Bill Church, the executive editor of the Star-Gazette in Elmira, N.Y., who is visiting the Advertiser.