A NORTH-EAST couple have told how their children fled New Orleans to escape the devastation wreaked by hurricane Katrina.

Susan and Peter Close, who grew up in Stockton, Teesside, spent 20 years in the Louisiana city and two of their children, Sarah, 30, and Christopher, 26, still live there, where they help run the family wine business.

The family had a wine warehouse and three homes in the city, as well as a vineyard in France.

Sarah and Christopher left the city before Katrina hit, and are staying in nearby Baton Rouge and Houston, Texas.

Yesterday, Mrs Close said: "The hurricane came in so quickly, everybody panicked.

"Everything is ruined, it is all underwater."

Mrs Close said she was relieved her children were safe, but said they were concerned as their two homes in the city were their investment.

Eldest daughter Sarah, who also has a home in New Orleans, was worried about the safety of one of her employees.

"I managed to get through to Sarah last night and she was in a bad state. She is very worried about her employee. The last they heard she had run out of petrol and abandoned her car.

The family are worried about looters and Mr Close plans to go to New Orleans.

"We have $620,000 of wine in a warehouse and a 110-year-old house. But that has already survived two hurricanes, so we are hopeful," added Mrs Close.

Meanwhile, Margaret Smith, 84, of Cornwall, is waiting for news from three generations of her family. She has not heard from her daughter, grandson or great-granddaughter since the disaster.

Her daughter had recently moved to a small coastal town near Biloxi in Mississippi.

She said: "She could be one on the list of dead and this is something I've got to face, and I don't think I can.

"There's always hope, and I've just got to hope."

Another 20-year-old Briton caught up in the devastation was "frightened but alive", his father said yesterday.

Wayne Henry received a text message from his son Peter telling him he had endured the "worst two days of his life".

Peter was one of two Britons in the US on Camp America placements who were missing.

The other was 21-year-old Natalie Train, from Edinburgh, whose mother Marjory Gordon-Orr told the BBC she had heard from her at 3.30am yesterday.

"It was a great relief to know that she is alive and that she is OK," she said.

The Foreign Office has issued a hotline number for concerned relatives to contact. The number is (020) 7008 0000.

There is also a 24-hour contact number for the British consulate in Houston, which is (001) 713 659 6270.