'We've been very lucky. We could have been wiped out'

The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is trying to contact Irish citizens in New Orleans or the surrounding area hit by Hurricane Katrina.

The families of up to ten Irish people have contacted the Department requesting help in tracking down their relatives.

Irishwoman Nicky McKeon and her family were part of the first mandatory evacuation in the region for 50 years. She has lived in the city of Houma, an hour west of New Orleans, for the past eight years.

She told ireland.com: "Last Saturday everyone was talking about Hurricane Katrina, and we were all trying to decide what to do. My husband works for a helicopter company and they offered to fly us out but I didn't want to go - I didn't want to leave the dog."

But then early Sunday morning Mrs McKeon got a call that the hurricane was heading straight for them. "So at 5am we just packed the kids and the dog into the car and left. All day there were warnings on the radio that if you stayed you would be on your own because there were going to be no emergency services."

Living with the threat of hurricanes Mrs McKeon is accustomed to evacuating. "This time it seemed to be better organised," she said. "It was really slow going, but the traffic did keep going. When we last evacuated, about ten months ago, it took 12 hours for a two-hour journey."

The family stayed with friends in Lafayette, even further to the west of New Orleans, but are now back home. The hurricane hit land slightly more east than predicted, and so Houma did not take the full force of the storm.

"We've been very, very lucky we could have been wiped out like other places," said Mrs McKeon. "Houma has only been partially affected. I've seen uprooted trees and missing roofs, and there are areas without water or electricity but nothing as bad as other areas. Our house is fine and we have friends staying because their house has no services."

But Mrs McKeon said the area around the local airport "has suffered 100 per cent damage. . . . It's completely flattened and people are not being allowed back, no one is allowed in, for at least month because there are no service and the water is contaminated."

Ms McKeon has an Irish friend in the worst-hit town, Biloxi. "Because all the cell phone masts are down I've not been able to contact her, I don't know where she is or if she's okay."

"The shops are crazy. Some supermarkets have closed because they have no electricity or the biggest one round here has had it's roof torn off.

"Because some roads are impassable the supermarkets which are open are starting to run out. I was two-and-a-half hours trying to do some shopping because of the queues and another hour to put gas in the car, which has gone up another $2 a gallon. I just don't know what's going to happen next," she said.

The Department has been in touch with the majority of the Irish people that it is aware of and, so far, they are all safe and well. There are still some people who have not yet been in touch, but the spokeswoman said communications were only starting to come back on stream.

"It will be a few more hours before a clear picture of the situation can be established."