The search for victims of Hurricane Katrina has sent Phoenix's National Center for Missing Adults into a state of near bankruptcy.

Center Chief Executive Officer Kym Pasqualini says the organization has had to move to smaller quarters and cut staff from 13 to five because of a decrease in federal funding, USA Today reported. Federal assistance for the group has declined from $1.5 million in 2002 to $148,000 in 2006.

Now, we're praying that the public or some corporation will come to the aid to keep us going, says Pasqualini. We're cutting everywhere we can.

The Justice Department called on the center to help with hurricane relief efforts after last year's disaster.

Pasqualini told USA Today the department provided $50,000 to defray the cost of locating missing adults but the group's hurricane-related costs were $200,000.

A real problem for us is that because we have cut our staff, our ability to update families on the status of dozens of pending cases has been completely wiped out, Pasqualini said the newspaper.