Shirley Padgett's family, who still live in Driffield, feared the worst after watching the terror of the storm unfold on television.

Her worried sister, Pip McIntosh of Eastgate South, waited three days for news of her sister's safety as Katrina ripped apart her home in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Speaking from her son's home after a dramatic rescue, Mrs Padgett, 66, told the Driffield Times: "It was terrifying.
"I was lying in bed when the storm hit.

"We could hear tiles popping off the roof all the time, then we had no electricity, no phone and no water.

"I am still having a hard time dealing with it. It is something you do not ever want to go through.

"We had a lot of damage to our house, half of the roof had gone, so we had a leakage in the house, and we had a big fence surrounding the house which completely went.

She added: "We were luckier than a lot of other people. At least we are alive."

Mrs Padgett lives with her American husband Sam, just over a mile from the Gulf Coast, which felt the full force of the hurricane.

The storm struck on Monday last week, leaving the couple without electricity and stranded in their home. Without power and with no form of communication, Mrs Padgett and her husband were oblivious to the devastation caused outside their front door and elsewhere in the region.

It was only later that they discovered thousands of others have been left homeless and hungry, and heard reports of looting, stabbings and shootings as aid was slow to reach the region.

Destitute residents of the area, which includes the historic city of New Orleans, were still being evacuated as the Driffield Times went to press.

The Padgetts were left stranded in their home until lifeguard son, David, drove about 500 miles throughout the night from Jacksonville, Florida, to rescue them in the early hours of Wednesday.

He had loaded his pick-up truck with generators, axes and other tools not knowing what devastation he would find when he reached his parents' home.

Back in Driffield, Pip McIntosh, 59, her brother George Wilson and another sister, Christine English, were waiting for news of their sister's safety.

Mrs McIntosh finally received an email late last Thursday from Mrs Padgett's daughter, Sharon Podlin, saying that she was safe and well, and staying with her in Georgia.

"It was a relief," she told the Driffield Times.

"I got the message late on Thursday just to say they were safe, then I got a phone call from my sister on Friday night.
"I think I knew more than she did, having watched it all the way through on television.

"All they knew was what David had told them but she said it was horrendous.

"It was the seventh storm in the last three or four months, because it is hurricane season over there. But they have not seen anything like that."

After the hurricane hit Biloxi, it moved up the coast to the city of New Orleans which is still submerged under several feet of water.

Thousands of residents packed the city's Superdome stadium before many were evacuated to Dallas, Texas.

More than 150 British were still missing at the time of going to press.

Criticism has been levelled at the slow American response to the disaster and prominent black leaders such as the Rev Jesse Jackson have accused leaders of racism against black citizens of New Orleans.