Concern for Irish caught in hurricane disaster zone

There are worries over the location of some Irish citizens caught up in the disaster stricken US city New Orleans, a Government minister said today.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern admitted there was concern over the locations of some Irish people.

“We are hopeful that all of our people will be accounted for, we have some worries about one or two which is continuing,” Mr Ahern said, amid reports law and order had completely broken down in the city.

“By and large we have had some contact with our people and what we have tried to do is reassure the parents at home and to try and get our people to assist them out there.

“But the communications are very bad.”

The Foreign Affairs Department has been contacted by around 40 families seeking information about relatives travelling in the area and officials are still working to establish the locations of around 10 Irish citizens.

Four days after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in the region, there are thousands of people desperate to get out of the swamped city.

There have been reports of rapes, beatings and car-jackings. Evacuation attempts were disrupted by gunfire and armed looters are loose on the streets.

Jim Lally, whose son Conor was caught up in the chaotic attempts to evacuate New Orleans, said he had been holed up with thousands of others in horrendous conditions in the city’s Superdome theatre.

“There have seen sights which were indescribable to be honest,” Mr Lally said.

He added: “There have been rapes, there has been gang warfare in the Superdome because they have all the different street gangs in there.

“It is full of people off the street, people of the night, homeless people and alcoholics so on like that, drug addicts who are not getting their drugs and they are not getting their alcohol. You can only just think of what they could be getting up to you know.”

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has announced the arrival of 300 soldiers who recently returned from Iraq and warned that they would “shoot and kill“.

Mr Ahern said the Foreign Affairs Department has been in contact with embassy officials in the US on an hourly basis since the disaster struck.

“Three children of neighbours of mine were actually in the Superdome from the minute it happened and they have only just got out of it in recent times but thankfully, they are now accounted for even though they were in very bad circumstances in the Superdome,” Mr Ahern told RTE Radio.

“They got a text out to the father of one of the children the night before last just basically saying they were ok but the situation in the Superdome was deplorable.”

Mr Lally said his son and friends were evacuated to a hotel from the Superdome by the army last night along with other international people.

The concerned father said: “There was about 50 to 60 people taken to this hotel. Not the sort of hotel that you and I would probably want to book in to but never-the-less better than the Superdome.”

The 20-year-old Queen’s University student was on a holiday in New Orleans with friends after spending the summer working on a J1 visa in Myrtle Beach in the US.

Mr Lally said his son was hoping to be taken by bus to either Baton Rouge or Houston, where Irish consulate staff and Irish organisations were waiting to help them.

After two phone calls from his son, Mr Lally said there was a certain amount of relief.

He added: “We won’t be relieved until we can actually physically see him I suppose but there is a certain amount of relief.”

“We have got tremendous help I have to say from the Dept of Foreign Affairs,” Mr Lally said.

Mr Ahern said the Irish consulate in the US had set up an office in Houston to aid those evacuated in the region.