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“I won’t rest until I actually see them and wrap my arms around them,” said Terry Leyden, Michael’s father. “We are in bits, and so are Jean’s family. One minute we were sharing a day of joy at their wedding and the next it is absolute gloom.”

Yesterday families of young travellers stranded in the Superdome stadium said the response of American authorities had been chaotic. The Britons and Irish, many of them recent graduates, were herded into the stadium along with around 25,000 other people unable to flee the city. The building was later declared unsafe but evacuation was halted after rescue workers came under sniper fire.

The girlfriend of one Briton was threatened with rape, and another reported that people trapped inside were so desperate that one leapt to her death.

Will Nelson, 21, of Epsom, Surrey, sent an impassioned e-mail to his family on Friday pleading for help. He wrote: “Please can you try and contact the embassy, tell them that we really need their help with getting out of here — it’s turning into a war zone.”

Yesterday he said troops in the Superdome had told foreigners to use sharp objects like scissors or tweezers to protect themselves from gangs. “At one point we had to carry a US national guard on a stretcher after he was shot by looters,” he said.

Louis Lohan, from Newbridge, Galway, the parish priest at St Thomas the Apostle’s church in Long Beach, Biloxi, is believed to be cycling around comforting parishioners.

Joe Lohan, his brother and a teacher in Ballygar secondary school, said the church had been destroyed along with a newly built community centre and a nearby school. Lohan, who has two brothers and four sisters all living in Ireland, was due to travel home today for a brief holiday.

Joe said: “We were worried from Tuesday on, because we couldn’t get in contact with him. By Thursday we were very anxious, but then we heard that he was in a house and he was safe. We don’t know where this is, but we believe he was staying with a friend. We have been assured that he has food and clothes and that the house has a generator.”

There are nearly 80 Irish priests and nuns working in the Mississippi area. According to Tommy Conway, a priest from Galway, most have now been accounted for. “We can’t make any calls here. We are in the middle of it, but everyone on the outside knows more than us,” he said.

The 43-year-old priest has spent the past few days driving around in his pick-up trying to get ice and water for parishioners and checking if he can hold a mass in his church, St Thomas Aquinas near the Southern Mississippi university.

“When you stop and take in what has happened, you want to cry,” he said. “But you have to think positively and there are people worse off than us.”

Patrick McDermott, a priest from Glenties, Donegal, who is in Ireland on vacation, said his parish is decimated. McDermott, the administrator of Our Lady of Victories parish church in Pascagoula, Mississippi, said 90% of his parish had been demolished by Katrina.

“Our church is submerged in 9ft of water; we’ve lost everything,” he said. “I feel terrible. All the priests and nuns in our community are Irish and we are strong people, we will just have to help each other.”

Irish diplomatic staff have been sent to Texas and other Irish American hubs, including San Antonio, to help evacuees.

Yesterday Irish people were told to stop panic-buying petrol. There had been warnings that the price of unleaded petrol could rise above €1.30 as a result of the “Katrina factor” but the AA said it was more likely that prices would rise by about 5c a litre, to an average of €1.13 a litre.

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