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As the dust settles around the pile of debris that used to be the World Trade Center, Americans and others have been desperately seeking information about those closest to them.

With phone lines and cell phone networks overloaded in many areas, Internet users have improvised and found their own ways to share and seek information. Because initially there was no coordinated effort to help people locate survivors, several Web sites sprung up to provide information.

For instance, ny.com, an information site for tourism and entertainment in New York City, has put up an ad hoc list of survivors. The site is replicated at several mirror sites.

The firm also has launched a general information site for people in New York, featuring phone numbers for employees of various companies located in the World Trade Center to call. It also provides numbers to report missing persons and links to subway and railroad sites, blood centers, and city message boards.

Of course, mainstream media sites are also pitching in. The New York Post has a resource site for city residents. It presents missing persons information as well as its ongoing news coverage.

Resources Offered

CNN features a Victim Information Page of resources for New Yorkers and those who wish to help. PCWorld's sibling publication, Network World, also features resources on its site, Network World Fusion.

The New York Times is providing links to various resources on its home page, which requires free registration for access. The Times is also home to a list of all known victims and a list of the tenants of the World Trade Center towers.

The Millennium Cluster at the University of California, Berkeley has set up a site for those who want to report the names of people who survived the attack and access a database of known survivors.

The World Trade Center itself, of course, is another casualty. The Banzai Deck site not long ago provided real-time views of New York City and the New Jersey shore from Web cams mounted on the World Trade Center. The site is still active but its image space remains black.