CAMP WILLIAMS — As deadly floodwaters receded back home, worries were getting deeper for New Orleans evacuee Kathy Phipps, who spent the first two nights in the barracks here wondering where on earth her two children might be and blaming herself.

Going back for the family dog and a few personal things was no excuse for leaving them in a hurricane, she kept thinking. Since separating from Michael Spencer, 11, and Mickal Spencer, 7, during their search for higher ground, life has been "worse than hell," Phipps said.

But the fear that her family would face a tragedy more devastating than any natural disaster dissipated Sunday night when Red Cross workers told her the children were safe at the Austin Convention Center with their grandmother, Ethel Phipps.

"I just threw my arms up and said, "Thank you, Jesus,' " Phipps said. "Thank you, Utah, because you didn't give up on me."

Phipps' entire body shook and tears poured from her eyes as she told her children by telephone Monday afternoon, "I love you big as the world. I'm coming to get you, I promise I'm coming. Don't cry, don't cry. Mama loves you."

The day before the storm hit, Ethel Phipps called Kathy Phipps at work to tell her she was leaving with the children and going to higher ground. Kathy decided to go back to the family's one-story home to retrieve some personal belongings and to save the family dog, Boyd, before rejoining the children.

"I didn't think the storm was going to be that bad," Phipps said.

Phipps went to bed a week ago Sunday night intent on reuniting with the children the next day. But when she woke up the next morning, floodwaters were at her front porch. "There was no way I could get to them."

She crawled onto the roof. "The winds were so heavy we had to hold on for dear life."

The floodwaters continued to rise, forcing Phipps and a group of three others to build a makeshift raft out of two tires. The group fought through harsh winds and a rushing current to eventually make it to a two-story home where they could rest above the floods.

Phipps can't swim and nearly drowned when she fell off the raft. Luckily, she fell near a tree and pulled herself to safety.

"God was with me," Phipps said. "Thank God for that tree."

The group was eventually evacuated to the New Orleans Convention Center. Upon arrival, the worried mother frantically searched for Michael and Mickal — for three days inside the sweltering center.

"I was going crazy," she said.

She refused to give up and walked a mile in water above her knees to the Louisiana Superdome in hopes of finding her children there.

Phipps made it to the Superdome but didn't get inside because authorities refused entry to the already overcrowded arena.

"I couldn't give up," she recalled, although she came close when she boarded an airplane to Utah, deepening her worst fears and literally widening by more than 1,000 miles the separation between herself and her children.

But Phipps found hope in Utah through a Red Cross caseworker who immediately started to make calls. State Department of Workforce Services officials were working Monday on a plan to reunite Phipps with her family.

Phipps said she wants her children brought to Utah. "We're gonna stay here," Phipps said. "I've experienced nothing but love here."

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com