A BRITISH police inspector flew out to America yesterday to track down his son who is missing in New Orleans.

Inspector Wayne Henry was last night trying to trace Peter, 20, among the tens of thousands of survivors trapped in the city’s Superdome. Four days ago, Peter sent a text message to his family in Epsom, Surrey, saying that he was petrified but alive.

On Thursday they received a voice message saying he was experiencing the worst days of his life, but planned to continue his tour. Yesterday Mr Henry, with the Metropolitan Police for nearly thirty years and based in Hammersmith, West London, flew to Houston with photographs of his son.

Speaking minutes before he boarded his Heathrow flight, Mr Henry, 48, said: “It is the frustration of being absolutely helpless and not being able to do anything at all to help. I have got to make sure that he is there . . . I need to do it.”

Peter was one of four Britons in New Orleans on Camp America placements who were missing after the storm struck. Another was Natalie Train, 21, from Edinburgh. At least a further 18 Britons are believed to be among the tens of thousands of people seeking refuge in the sports centre. Peter had flown from his camp at San Francisco to New Orleans days before the hurricane struck.

Three generations of the same British family are missing in the city. Beverly Gregory, 52, her son Justin, 28, and granddaughter Sage, 8, have not made contact with relatives since the storm struck. Mrs Gregory moved to New Orleans in the 1960s when she married her American husband, William. Her mother, Margaret Smith, 84, of Landrake, Cornwall, is anxiously waiting news.

“Before the hurricane, they called to say they had boarded up the windows, brought in supplies and would phone after the hurricane passed,” she said. “I have heard nothing.” Many trapped Britons have resorted to text-messaging anxious relatives. Mark Hashmy, 36, sent his family a message saying: “Disaster area, no power, freeway flooded and blocked, and they can’t fix it. Army helicopters everywhere. We are isolated.”

His mother, Gloria Hashmy, from South Devon, said: “I just want to know whether he has managed to get out.” Mary Kramer, 55, and her husband, William, who moved to Mississippi 15 years ago to work as nurses in Biloxi, are missing. Mrs Kramer’s sister, Patricia Smith, and her husband, Anthony, from Ipswich, Suffolk, said: “We have phoned, but you don’t get anything. When you saw Biloxi on the television nine out of ten houses were flattened.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office hotline for concerned relatives is 020-7008 0000. The 24-hour contact number at the Houston British Consulate is 001-713 659 6270.

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