YOUNGSTERS from the North-East on summer work placements in the US have been caught up in the chaos wreaked by Hurricane Katrina.

Sunderland student Jamie Trout, 22, was one of thousands trapped in the New Orleans Superdome.

He described the past few days as hell and "something out of Lord of the Flies".

"Everything is calm and civil, the next moment it descends into chaos," he said.

"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."

Mr Trout kept a diary of his experiences. He was one of a group of 30 British youngsters trapped in the dome. They have been threatened by knife and gun-wielding drug addicts.

He had been coaching disabled children to play football as part of a Camp America scheme.

Last night, his mother, Pamela, 51, said: "We got an e-mail on Sunday night to say the situation was serious and he was being evacuated to the dome.

"I believed he was safe there. But I spoke to him on Thursday night and now we're just frantic. We just want him home."

Last night, Mr Trout was moved from the dome to a nearby hotel as more horror stories emerged from those who escaped the hurricane.

A teacher from Teesside told how he and his family fled their home in New Orleans.

Matt Hayes, 34, from Ormesby, Middlesbrough, took his children - Owen, six, Tabitha, five, and Robert, two - to Texas, while his wife Allison, a nurse, stayed behind to tend to sick children.

Mrs Hayes has now been reunited with her family, but Mr Hayes, who teaches 12 to 14-year-olds, said he was worried some of his pupils might have died.

Darren Pearson, 19, arrived home in Darlington last night. He fled the city along the coast road to Florida in a truck hired by a friend's mother.

Mr Pearson, who was travelling after working at a summer camp in Massachusetts, said: "We went out and were stopped by a police officer who told us 'get out immediately, people are going to die here'."