Jean La Montagne spent two agonising weeks sneaking into shelters in Texas and Louisiana pretending to be a volunteer as she searched for her missing sons ? an experience like ?something out of a war movie?.

But on Saturday night all that was forgotten as a crowd of about 30 friends and relatives whooped, cheered and applauded as she came put of the airport with her beaming sons Jamel and Jashun at her side.

The emotional homecoming marked the end of a three-week nightmare that started on August 29 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans where 19- and 17-year-old Jamel and Jashun Thomas were visiting their father.

While their American grandparents evacuated the city, they stayed behind with their father James Thomas ? and seemingly disappeared in the chaos after the hurricane, which has killed almost 900 and left hundreds of thousands homeless and scattered all over the US.

Ms La Montagne flew to the United States a day after Hurricane Katrina struck to find her sons.

?We had to pretend to live in the area to get into the shelters. We had to do a lot of lying to be able to get around, but to survive you do whatever you can?, she said.

Her search began in Houston, Texas where thousands of evacuees from New Orleans had been moved.

She also posted a plea on the Internet: ?I am from Bermuda. I arrived in the United States yesterday and I am looking for my two sons who were living with their American father in New Orleans. Jamel Thomas 19 and Jashun Thomas 17. Posted by: Jean La Montagne on September 1, 2005 08:41 AM.?

What she did not know at that stage was that the boys had already made their way to Gonzalez in Louisiana, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, when the floodwaters continued to rise.

During their time at the Lamar-Dixon Centre in Gonzalez, Jashun said they had no electricity or water so they were unable to take a bath.

?It was real hard.?

The brothers also knew their mother would be worried, but because they were unable to make long distance telephone calls from the shelter, they had no way of letting her know where they were and that they were OK.

Jamel said: ?My mother is a strong woman, that?s why we depend on her, but we had no electricity and stuff and could not get in contact with her, but it was really about me and my brother trying to save ourselves.?

Jamel said the experience was ?tremendous?.

?Have you seen that movie War of the Worlds... it was like that,? he said.

Ms La Montagne did not succeed in finding the boys during her first trip to the US, but a few days after her return to the Island, she saw a young man she believed could be Jamel, being being carried through the putrid floodwaters on CNN.

?I saw it and I screamed and cried,? she said, adding that it gave her the strength to return to the US for the second time.

And almost 18 days after Hurricane Katrina ripped a family apart, she found the teenagers in Gonzalez.

?Getting into New Orleans was awful. I mean seeing the boy was fantastic, but to have to leave other people?s children there ... they were begging us to take their children ... it was something that left me in shock.?

Ms La Montagne added: ?I was crying for the other people, I was glad I had my boys, but I left crying because I could not help them and they were begging me to help.?

She said it was like something out of a movie.

?They don?t have any food and The Salvation Army comes around giving plates of food to people, but the food is nasty,? she said.

With contaminated water all around them, she could not understand why people would not leave New Orleans.

Adding that the ones who needed the most help were the children.

?What a lot of people in Texas are saying is that they will take the children and put them in schools and stuff. The children are the ones that are suffering. Their parents are still in shock. But I feel sorry for the children because they are not used to that type of life.

?I don?t care what anyone says ... nobody is used to living like that. It looks like a bomb dropped on the whole area.?

Now that they are home, Ms La Montagne said they planned to sleep ? a lot ? and needed to see a doctor after living in unsanitary conditions in the shelters.

Jamel and Jashun?s grandmother, Carol Raymond, was also at the airport on Saturday night, anxious to see her grandsons.

?It?s a thing you can?t explain, you can feel it. It?s a prayer that?s been answered and I just thank God for it because there are so many other people who need prayers because they can?t find their loved ones,? she said ?And to see mine here, it?s just a prayer that?s been answered.?

Ms Raymond said only the fact that she had to stay behind to look after her other two grandchildren kept her from getting on a plane to help to search for the boys.

?I told her: ?You go and do what you got to do and bring your kids back?.?