Fats Domino missing in New Orleans flood

LOS ANGELES - Rock 'n' roll legend Fats Domino is now among the thousands unaccounted for in flooded New Orleans after rebuffing friends' pleas to flee as Hurricane Katrina bore down on the city he celebrated in song, his manager said today.

The 77-year-old musician, beloved for his boogie-woogie piano style and such hits as "Ain't That a Shame," "Walking to New Orleans" and "Blueberry Hill," has not been heard from since Sunday night, hours before Katrina slammed into the US Gulf Coast, manager Al Embry said.

Embry said he spoke with Domino by telephone twice on Sunday, trying to persuade the singer to evacuate, but the musician insisted he was "going to try to ride out" the storm at home with his wife, Rosemary, and his youngest daughter.

Embry, who is based in Nashville, Tennessee, said friend and onetime country music star Mickey Gilley, a cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, got on the phone with him at one point on Sunday and "tried to beg (Domino) to leave".

Domino lives in New Orleans' 9th Ward, which Embry said was believed to be underwater.

Embry said he had received reports that Domino "might have been picked up on Tuesday night" and that he had been seen trying to flag down a passing boat near his house, but none of those accounts could be confirmed.

The Fox News website reported that another Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter from New Orleans, Allen Toussaint, 67, was among more than 20,000 refugees at the New Orleans Superdome.

- REUTERS