Tuesday’s devastating attack on Manhattan’s World Trade Center has sent thousands of people out into the streets in search of information about their missing loved ones. Their job is to shuffle past klieg lights, cameras, and producers, to stand in endless lines and fill out endless forms, and to paste up countless pictures of the missing. Some say that just feeling like they’re trying helps make their dour task a little bit easier.

"Just sitting home and making phone calls wasn’t enough for me," said Scott Morison, who has spent the past two days looking for his father-in-law, Manuel Lopez, who worked on the 98th floor of the North Tower. "I had to make a physical effort."

That only 184 of the more than 4,700 reported missing have been found, and only 35 identified, hasn't stopped thousands like Morison from going through a process many have found to be frustrating and confusing.

"We have gone to all the sources, we have called all the hospitals—again and again," said Yuet Ling Chin, whose brother, Robert Chin, is still missing. "We waited in line for hours and hours to go through all the lists and find no information. It is very frustrating, but it is a process that we have to go through."

That process begins for many by constructing a placard or flyer with photos and information of their loved one.

Acting as calling cards and memorials of the missing, some of these flyers are as simple as photocopied, black and white pages. Some are more ornate, such as the glossy, laminated placards with color photos that some families and friends carry.

These placards are plastered on telephone booths, on windows, on news trucks, and on any available surface in Manhattan, especially around the major stops for the searchers: the two main hospitals handling attack victims, Bellevue and St. Vincent, and the emergency center set up for them, the Armory.

The Armory is a squat brick building on Manhattan's East side that has been set up as a clearinghouse for information on the missing. Long lines both in and out of the building haven’t stopped searchers like Morison, who waited five hours to get in, from waiting to scour a list to see if their loved ones are in some of the area hospitals. Once inside, people can also fill out a form that could help rescue personnel and hospital workers identify them once they are found.

That eight-page form compiles information about the missing persons, including basic statistics—such as their name, physical description, and dress—and also more detailed characteristics—such as descriptions of tattoos, scars and jewelry—that could also help identify the person. In the case that the body of the person is too decomposed to identify by traditional means, dental records can even be necessary. Morison brought two copies, "for the worst-case scenario," he said.

Filling out the forms, which are packaged along with any other information provided in a manila envelope, gives searchers an identification number they can use to refer to their missing person in calls to hospitals and the many hotlines that have been established.

For searchers trying to find loved ones affiliated with a particular company or group—such as those from the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter consulting firm or the New York Firefighters Department—those organizations have set up hotlines to help in the search. Many have compiled lists of their employees that were in the buildings when they were attacked, and act as a second clearinghouse for information.

After the Armory, there are a number of places loved ones can go for information. New York's Bellevue and St. Vincent hospitals both maintain lists of those they have admitted. The Javits Center on the city’s West Side, has also been a gathering point for information. Compelled by the desire to keep working to find their loved ones, many move from center to center, checking updated lists and talking with others who have lost family and friends.

One of the ways searchers have found to spread the word about their loved ones, without moving at all, is the media. At places like St. Vincent and the Armory, searchers weave through encampments of international, national, and local media, often heading to the segregated press areas looking for the biggest outlet possible.

At CNN International's set-up at the Armory Thursday, a line of families formed hoping to go on-air, others thrusting their placards into the air behind a shoot to give viewers at home at least a glimpse of their loved ones. It didn’t matter that those watching overseas and in the rest of the country would have little help to offer.

John Maquet, searching for his friend Leonard J. Snyder, who worked with Aon Consulting on the 101st floor of the South Tower, caught the eye of an MSNBC producer with his placard, a blown-up picture of Snyder with his wife, Janine, and their three smiling children. "We’re just trying to be strong," he said. "We are hoping, praying to god."

Morison said he almost scored a slot on NBC’s live coverage Wednesday, but was thwarted by incoming storms. "It’s okay," he said. "I told them I’d be back tomorrow." After trying all the stops on the circuit, his quest will continue. "I’m staying here as long as it takes," said Morison. "I was standing outside my house watching them as they collapsed. I’ll do anything I can do now."