Are my boys alive?
A Bermudian mother of two teenage boys missing for ten days in New Orleans has been given fresh hope of finding her sons alive.
Bermudians Jamel and Jashun Thomas have not been heard from since they were in the home of their grandparents in Metairie, New Orleans the night before catastrophic Hurricane Katrina slammed into the US Gulf Coast on Monday, August 29.
But yesterday, Jean La Montagne said she saw footage on CNN of 17-year-old Jashun being carried through the putrid floodwaters.
?I saw it and I screamed and cried,? she said last night. ?I got a sense of hope. Even if it is not my son, I felt it was my son. My daughter said not to get my hopes up.?
The CNN image shows another survivor in a rescue boat that looks like 19-year-old Jamel Thomas, she said.
She also has not heard from her sons? father, with whom they were living in New Orleans before the disaster struck. Nor has there been any word from their grandmother and grandfather.
?One of my cousins got out and was put in a shelter too,? she said.
Mrs. La Montagne was featured on ?CNN with Nancy Grace? on Tuesday.
However, she has so far been unable find out from the Cable News Network when and where the photograph that has given her hope was taken.
Having been on the Island for barely 24 hours, she will resume her search by flying back to Houston, Texas, today where thousands of refugees are being housed.
?A Bermudian family out there is going to put me and my daughter up,? she said.
Mrs. La Montagne has pledged to spend as long as it takes searching shelters up and down the US to find her boys.
She said she had received outpourings of support from the community and in turn comforts other women who have misplaced family members from the storm.
?One lady was screaming at me. Her husband is missing. I just listen. She will meet me in Houston,? she said. ?I feel like if I just sit here they will never find me.?