The Red Cross chapter in Cape Girardeau reported via news release today that it's unable to accept inquiries to contact or locate family and friends in Japan in the wake of a massive earthquake there.

The Red Cross suggests the following methods for inquiries:

* Inquiries concerning U.S. citizens living or traveling in Japan should be referred to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services at 1-888-407-4747 or 202 647-5225.

* For inquiries about relatives living in Japan who are not US citizens, encourage the members of the community to keep calling or to try contacting other family members who live in the region. Even though communication networks are overloaded right now, the situation may change and access to mobile networks and the internet may improve.

* The Google Person Finder site is available at: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

* If you have the mobile phone number of your family member in the affected areas, you may utilize the following services to check whether he/she has registered his/her message(s) on this service. Services are available in English and Japanese.

DoCoMo: http://dengon.docomo.ne.jp/Einoticelist.cgi?es=0

SoftBank: .ip/pc-e1.jsp http://dengon.softbank.ne

Willcom: http://dengon.willxom-inc.com/dengon/MessageSearch.do;jsessionid=E1E3A8789C6AC141489E86AD5F20825.ap1

Please note that when you enter the mobile phone number for search on the webpage, you should remove the country code 0081 and add 0 at the beginning. For example, if you dial the number internationally as follows, 0081-90-8877-6655, enter it into the website as: 090-8877-6655.

If you're looking to help the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan Friday, you can start at the American Red Cross.

Donations may be made at the national site at www.redcross.org.

For updated information, visit the American Red Cross Southeast Missouri Chapter at www.semoredcross.org

There are 56 Japanese students attending Southeast Missouri State University, according to university officials. Look for more on the local effects of the Japanese quake later at www.semissourian.com and in Sunday's Southeast Missourian.