A Bermudian woman feared for her life after Hurricane Katrina unleashed howling winds, blinding rain and wrought extensive damage to the US Gulf Coast yesterday.

Katrina submerged neighbourhoods in New Orleans and pierced the roof of a stadium where many sought refuge.

But it weakened after making landfall and spared New Orleans a direct hit, despite frightening predictions. The hurricane, later downgraded from a category five to category two, still brought 105mph winds to areas pf Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Trudy Trott, of Paget, bought a new home in Mandeville, Louisiana located one hour outside of New Orleans in June.

However, on Sunday she fled the area after a mandatory evacuation order was issued.

?I am glad to have gotten out. If I had stayed my life would have been at risk,? Ms Trott said from the safety of a hotel room in Tennessee yesterday. ?It was not safe for anyone to be around. The winds were lethal at 170kph. I don?t know too many towns that could take that. Plus all the debris flying around. I have a wall of windows at my house. Everyone was terrified. They evacuated all of the parishes around the lake.?

Mandeville is on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain which borders New Orleans to the north.

Ms Trott still resides in Bermuda but recently moved near New Orleans for health reasons.

?I live close to the lake. They were predicting the lake could flood all the way up to the next town,? she said. ?The Governor evacuated 80 percent of the people. I spoke to one neighbour who said there was no electricity at all and some flooding. But I am not sure where the water will stop. There will be snakes in my pool. I never had to deal with that in Bermuda.?

When she heard the evacuation order on television on Sunday, she abandoned her home along taking her housekeeper and dog with her.

?We literally just grabbed some things and got out,? she said. ?The roads were extremely crowded, wall to wall cars. A highway that the average speed limit is 60mph, that day everyone was doing 20mph stop and go. No stores were open. It was like a ghost town.?

She said some of her neighbours in her affluent neighbourhood ignored the evacuation orders in order to protect their expensive construction machinery from looters.

?We are scared everything will be ruined. It is a substantial house. But it is not made of stone walls,? she said.

Although she has experienced over 20 years of hurricanes in Bermuda, it was nothing compared to Katrina.

She hopes to return to her home as soon as the water recedes, but some reports said that may not happen for a month.

Bermuda travel agencies said yesterday one woman had to abandon her flight plans to New Orleans.