After 16 heart-wrenchingly sickening days without any word of her two sons following deadly Hurricane Katrina, a determined Bermuda mother who never gave up hope was reunited with her children yesterday.

Jean Montagne?s two teenage sons, Jamel and Jashun Thomas, had been in Materie outside New Orleans when the ruthless Katrina plunged the area into darkness and water.

The riots, rapes, lootings and killings that have followed the natural disaster in that area only served to heighten Ms Montagne?s fears for her children.

She flew to the US with her daughter Ronisa deFontes and began a determined shelter to shelter search, even appearing on CNN in the hope of finding her sons.

But her determination paid off yesterday as the two boys were found alive and well.

Ms Montagne?s cousin Sarah Simmons told last night she had spoken with both the boys and her cousin.

Ms Simmons said she learned that the boys were safe at roughly 4.30 p.m. yesterday when her phone rang.

?Jamel called and said ?hello?. I said ?who is this??? she wrote in an email to friends and supporters. ?He said ?hi Aunt Sarah, it?s Jamel?. I screamed and cried, then Jashun got on the phone and said ?hi Aunt Sarah?. I started screaming and hollering and cried again. ?Oh my God?, I yelled, ?you are ok!??

Ms Montagne then came on the phone and told Ms Simmons that she was heading to New Orleans.

Exact details on where the brothers were found were unclear last night but Ms Simmons said, based on that statement, she believed her nephews had been found in the New Orleans area.

Ms Montagne said she would be making her way to Philadelphia, however, before returning to Bermuda.

?Now we can sleep at night,? said an ecstatic Ms Simmons last night, referring to the safe discovery of her nephews as a ?miracle?.

?I am so excited and very thankful to God because God had granted us a miracle and and we knew God would deliver them same,? she said.

Ms Montagne told Ms Simmons that her sons had been through a great ordeal and ?were pretty shaken up but appeared to be in good shape ? but were tired and needed a bath?.

While was unable to contact Ms Montagne last night as she was in transit, the relieved mother told local broadcast media that finding the boys was ?overwhelming?.

While delighted to have her children safe around her, Ms Montagne also spoke of the devastation Katrina left behind in the Gulf Coast of the US.

?It?s like something out of a movie ? like a war or an end of the world movie,? she said.