For an hour and a half Friday, it was every parent’s worst nightmare.

Sisters, 6 and 9, were missing. They were supposed to be in school, but weren’t. They had left home walking, on their way to Longley Elementary, but didn’t arrive.

Lewiston police responded in force, and the girls were found – safe and sound – at 11 a.m. outside the city library.

It’s hard to avoid news about missing children. Cases from far-flung places draw national attention and national despair. Too often, those stories don’t end happily. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there are an estimated 100 child abductions a year that end in a murder. Of those, about three-fourths are killed within the first three hours.

Within an hour, city police had already searched the girls’ home and school. A task force of 19 police officers, detectives and Androscoggin County deputies was on the job, scouring the area. And the state police, warden service and a police dog were called in.

In this case, a parking enforcement officer saw the girls outside the library. No serious harm was done. The quick reaction, effective communication and the deployment of manpower is the key to finding missing kids. When children are missing, there’s no such thing as doing too much.

Lewiston police, in this case, showed they were up to a difficult job.