Desperate search for tourists in New Orleans

US consulates were trying to contact hundreds of foreign nationals in the area hit by Hurricane Katrina as the devastation continued to make communication nearly impossible today.

At the Astrodome shelter in Houston, representatives from 15 countries placed flags on processing tables to direct foreign nationals to help as they arrived on buses, said Mitch Jeffery, vice-consul at the British Consulate in Houston.

“We have hotels lined up when they get here,” he said.

Only two British families had come through the refugee-packed Astrodome, and consulate officials were planning to relocate to other Texas cities where buses were being sent. French officials planned to do the same after receiving only two French tourists.

The US State Department on Friday said it had no figures on the number of foreigners reported missing.

Interpol said it had offered support to US and other authorities in trying to track down any missing foreigners. The international police agency proposed co-ordinating international police messages.

“The State Department has asked people to get in contact with their respective embassies,” said department spokeswoman Susan Pittmann.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry said seven Swedish citizens who were believed to have been in New Orleans when Katrina hit have not been located.

“However, we’re not calling them missing,” ministry spokeswoman Sofia Karlberg said. “They’re just people we haven’t located. It could be that there aren’t any phones working where they’re at.”

Officials from several countries struggled even to keep track of citizens who were known to have survived the storm but fell out of touch as they sought refuge.

Two Brazilian women – Monica Vassao, 25, and Leticia Campos, 19 – called their families on mobile phones from the Superdome in New Orleans immediately after the hurricane Monday, but have not been heard from since, according to the Brazilian Consulate in Houston.

“They said it was a very bad situation, people were dying and committing suicide,” said Flavia Passos, Brazil’s vice-consul in Houston. “We have been trying to contact them since then. We are really worried about them.”

One British tour group of 20 to 30 people was believed to be sheltering in the Superdome in New Orleans, but a British Foreign Office spokesman said they had not been able to contact them. The spokesman said he was not aware of any British fatalities.

The Daily Mirror quoted four British students who have spent four days at the Superdome, including one who kept a diary of his time at the shelter.

“It was like something out of Lord of the Flies – one minute everything is calm and civil, the next it descends into chaos,” wrote Jamie Trout, 22, an economics student from Sunderland.

In another entry, he wrote: “A man has been arrested for raping a seven-year-old in the toilet, this place is hell. I feel sick. The smell is horrendous, there are toilets overflowing and people everywhere.”

The Australian embassy in Washington said it was aware of about 50 Australians who were in New Orleans when the hurricane struck.

“Some people were heard from immediately after the storm but haven’t been heard from since,” said Matt Frances, spokesman for the Australian embassy.

“We know of a group of four Australians who were sheltering for three to four days under a bridge in New Orleans. But we have no information of their whereabouts at present,” Frances said.

Several thousand German nationals living in the area affected by Katrina evacuated safely, according to the embassy in Washington.

“There are some tourists still trapped in hotels in New Orleans,” said Martina Nibbeling-Wriessnig, an embassy spokeswoman. “We were happy to learn that exchange students were evacuated before the storm with their host families.”