A GRANDMOTHER spent four days fearing for her family's safety as they were caught up in the chaos of Hurricane Wilma.

Barbara Houghton, 72, from Woodhouse Park, watched on television as the hurricane destroyed homes and ripped up trees in Mexico, but was unable to contact her daughter Jennifer, 35, from Northern Moor, who was there with her children Samuel, 15, Joshua, 13, and Sarah, 12, and Samuel's friend Lee Struthers, 16.

The family had phoned home on Friday, hours before the hurricane hit, to say they had been evacuated to shelter in a schoolroom.

Jennifer finally made contact with Barbara after returning from six days in a shelter with little food and no change of clothes to find the hotel seriously damaged.

The group have since been evacuated to the Dominican Republic on a rescue flight.

Barbara said: "I was watching all of the television channels and was just desperate for news and trying to contact anyone who might be able to tell me what was going on. We didn't hear anything about them for days.

"Finally we got a call in the early hours of Tuesday to say they were safe, it was just a massive relief to know that I'll see them again.

"They had got back to the hotel to find it had no windows. Jennifer said food had been running short in the shelter and that hygiene conditions had been poor, but thankfully everyone is all right and the Mexican people were very helpful.

"She said the children had been superb and now I just can't wait to see them."

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