Irish concern: The Department of Foreign Affairs is seeking to trace the whereabouts of five Irish citizens who are feared by their relatives to have been caught up in Hurricane Katrina
While the department stressed it had no specific concerns about any particular individual, 10 people had contacted it requesting help in locating family members.
Half of those have been found safe and well, and efforts are being made to locate the others, all of whom are believed to have been in the New Orleans area when the hurricane struck.
"We have already been in contact with travel agents. But a lot of people who go on holidays to the US will just buy the flights, and then make their own travel arrangements," a department spokeswoman said.
Communications to the disaster-stricken area improved yesterday, enabling department officials to make contact with a number of Irish citizens about whom relatives had concerns.
The father of an Irishman trapped in New Orleans with his newly-wedded wife has appealed to the department to assist in their evacuation from the city.
Michael and Jean Leyden, Dromahair, Co Leitrim, were due to return home tomorrow after spending the past two weeks on honeymoon in Louisiana. Terence Leyden said he last heard from his son at lunchtime yesterday, when he was "turned out" of the hotel in which he had been staying in New Orleans. The father said: "It's a desperate situation . . . we're really worried."