A NEWLY-WED who paddled through New Orleans flooded streets in a boat rescuing survivors, says he almost came under attack himself.

Andrew Rowling, 21, from Chelsfield, moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, after marrying his fiancee Sarah, 19, in June.

A day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region, he drove the 130 miles to New Orleans, with a friend at 4am to help survivors.

The former Priory School pupil said: "Water in some places was eight feet deep and full of petrol, trees, garbage, house tiles and cars.

"We saw buildings on fire and dead cats floating on the water.

"We tried to take an elderly diabetic to the hospital but they were evacuating and had no supplies."

They helped more than 60 people to dry land and when the boat was too full, Mr Rowling, a former youth leader at Green Street Green Baptist Church, waited on the roof of a car.

The people they rescued were mainly black but the rescuers were still accused of racism, making them fear for their safety.

Mr Rowling, who met his wife at a disciple training school in South Africa, said: "We had heard reports of boat hijackings at gunpoint and after a visit to a rather loud house we decided now was the time to go.

"There were maybe 20 African-Americans, hurling abuse at us while fighting among themselves as to who was getting on the boat."

They dropped the group off and took the boat back to their truck, still coming under fire for being racist.

He said: "At times it felt we were being blamed for the storm itself."

Mr Rowling who will probably enter a career as a missionary, said in an email to his family: "All of my friends and family are fine, as am I.

"The people who need your prayers are the millions of homeless people and in particular those who are firing guns on helicopters taking children from hospitals, looting houses and shops, fighting and abusing rescue workers."

Here is Andrew's account in his own words in full:

Dear All,

Just a quick email to let everyone know what's going on here in Lafayette, Louisiana after the hurricane. A few of you were emailing to check up so I thought one big email was in order.

Lafayette is only 120-140 miles west of New Orleans but as we were west of the storm we felt very little here. We saw no wind damage a very little rain. I thought it was over then and went back to work Tuesday. I had a call though that night from the guy I work for telling me he was taking his flat bottom boat to New Orleans to help rescue people stuck in the flooding. After some careful thought I decided to go with him, so we left Wednesday at 4am and after being turned away once eventually put our boat in on the South West side of town. The scene was unbelievable with water in some places 6-8ft (1.8m-1.4m) deep. The water was full of petrol, debris such as trees, garbage, house tiles, CARS. The two of us took over 60 people from their homes or just the flooded streets over to dry land. Some people were in very difficult situations but we somehow managed to get them out of the water and take them to the dry areas. For others it was a much more simple taxi service just picking them up and dropping them off. At one point the boat was too full so I waited on a car roof that would float when any other boat went passed. We saw buildings on fire, dead cats floating on the water etc. We tried to take an elderly diabetic to the hospital but they were evacuating there and had no supplies.

To begin with we would travel down streets with the engine off, shouting and waiting for a response before finding people, stepping out of houses into chest high water or being taken from second story windows in the boat, dogs-n-all. As the day went on we began to find more and more people, to the point where we didn't have to look for people, they were looking for us. It began to get more and more dangerous also, beginning with the people getting less and less gratefull up until we were being verbally abused and threatened by people for not picking them up and being racist by only helping whites in this predominently black neighborhood. Needless to say 90% of those we rescued were black and in-fact for personal safetly reasons we made an effort to collect at least one black person per trip to show people our intentions were for all not just the whites. We had heard reports of boat hi-jackings at gun point and after a visit to a rather loud house we diecided that now was the time to go. We arrived at a house with maybe twenty African-American's, hurling abuse at us while fighting amongst themselves as to who was getting on the boat. It was after dropping them off that we made the decision to head back to the truck (still hoping it hadn't been stolen) and to head home.

We had to travel by boat around one mile to the truck. On the way we continued to receive accusations of racism and at times felt we were being blamed for the storm itself! We were both expecting at any tme to be approached and in somewhat different words asked if we would mind 'kindly sacrificing our water transportation to the welcoming locals!' Fortunately we made it back with everything we'd left with.

We headed back to Lafayette and even had time to put a few hitch-hikers in the back to go to Lafayette!

Since then Lafayette has been receiving, as are many other towns in the southern states, more and more refugees, many unfortunately with the attitude as those we encountered in New Orleans. Many people are frightened by having the thought of so many refugees roaming the steets and there have been many roumors of car hi-jackings and store hold ups. As yet I have not seen any evidence of this or heard anything more than hear-say, althought the thought is enough to have people on the alert, and I am sure the number of residents carrying guns will have risen dramatically.

All those of my friends and family are fine, as am I, and as long as we are sensible about travelling around on our own and after dark we will have no problems. The people who need your prayers are the millions of homeless people and in particular those who are fireing guns on helicopters taking children from hospitals, looting houses and shops, fighting and abusing rescue workers.

I cannot give a complete acount of my adventures in email but this is the gist-of-it.

Thank you for your interest.

Love Andrew