Hurricane-hit pair call home (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Hurricane-hit pair call home

Helen RichardsA WOMAN from West Swindon is still waiting for news of friends she believes might have been caught up in Hurricane Katrina.

Helen Richards, 52, of Belsay, pictured right, used to live in Gulfport, near New Orleans, one of the towns affected by the hurricane.

Since the Advertiser reported on Mrs Richard's anxious wait on Saturday, she has received e-mails and phone calls from her 30-year-old stepson, Brett, and has also heard her ex-husband, Dale Shank, is safe.

"It is wonderful news to have heard from them, but there are so many people I haven't yet heard from, so the waiting continues," she said.

Mrs Richards says she is still awaiting news from five cousins, two in Biloxi, two in Gulfport and one in New Orleans.

She said: "New Orleans is six hours behind so when it's the afternoon I hit the telephones, but whenever I call there is a message saying the lines are still down."

She says she is particularly concerned about friends who told her they were going to sit out the storm as she has not heard from them since.

"I am watching television, but only occasionally it makes me upset to see the region as it is now," she said.

"I have shed a few tears seeing the pictures from there. It is so sad that people have become so desperate that they have to loot for food."

Over the weekend, aid began to arrive in New Orleans as President Bush promised to he would fix what's "not going exactly right" in the storm's aftermath.

Anthony Osborne