THE TWO YOUNG sons of an Irish emigrant were among the victims of superstorm Sandy, it has emerged.

Connor and Brandon Moore, aged four and two, were washed away in the storm which battered the east coast of the United States last week.

According to RTÉ their father Damien is originally from Co Donegal.

Their mother Glenda was trying to flee the storm on Staten Island when her SUV was submerged in water with the two boys in the backseat.

She managed to free the pair from the car and held onto a nearby tree and her two sons “for hours” according to police.

Moore is then said to have knocked on the door of a nearby house pleading to be allowed inside but she told police she was refused.

The New York Daily News reports that, according to Moore’s sister, she was banging on doors looking for help but no one was willing to help her.

“They answered the door and said, ‘I don’t know you. I’m not going to help you,’” the sister is quoted as saying.

CNN spoke to the owner of a house that Moore reportedly knocked on who denied that this was the case:

YouTube: CNN

The two children’s bodies were located about a quarter of a mile away from where they were washed away last Thursday. Damien had been working in Brooklyn during the superstorm where he is a city sanitation worker.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, a local parish priest Philip Daly said that the discovery of the two young children’s bodies was “in itself a blessing” and allowed the boys’ parents to grieve properly.