The stricken communications system along the Gulf Coast is causing difficulties in locating Irish people who may have been caught up in Hurricane Katrina, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said today.
Dermot Ahern said that although most of the Irish in the region who were the subject of inquiries had been contacted, "we have some worries about one or two.
"By and large we have had some contact with our people and what we have tried to do is reassure the parents at home and to try and get our people to assist them out there. But the communications are very bad."
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted by around 40 families seeking information about relatives and officials are still working to establish the locations of around ten Irish citizens.
Mr Ahern told RTÉ radio the Irish consulate in the United States had set up an office in Houston to aid those evacuated in the region.
Four days after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in the region, there are thousands of people desperate to get out of the worst-affected city, New Orleans.
The US emergency effort is faltering - accommodating evacuees and providing fresh water and food is presenting particular problems - and many people are still stuck in the Louisiana city where anarchy has taken a grip in some parts.
Jim Lally, whose son Conor was caught up in the chaotic evacuation attempts, said he had been holed up with thousands of others in horrendous conditions in the city's Superdome stadium.
"There has been gang warfare in the Superdome because they have all the different street gangs in there. It is full of people off the street, people of the night, homeless people and alcoholics so on like that," Mr Lally said.
His 20-year-old son is Queen's University student on a holiday in New Orleans with friends after spending the summer working on a J1 visa in Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Mr Lally said his son was hoping to be taken by bus to either Baton Rouge or Houston, where Irish consulate staff and Irish organisations were waiting to help them.
Labour Party TD Tommy Broughan urged the Government to offer aid to help the relief effort and said it was "strange" it had not already been done.
"Over 20 countries around the world, including some of our EU partners such as Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Belgium and the UK, have already offered aid and assistance to Louisiana and Mississippi," Mr Broughan said.