Motorists, with scarlet pieces of fabric tied on their cars, switched on their lights and honked their horns well into the early hours. Everyone from grey-suited office workers to schoolchildren danced their way through the streets, waving white, black and red national flags. "I don't care if we ever win a match in Germany, this victory is the real celebration for me," said a taxi driver Hosein Mohammed, who drove triumphantly through the city while his passengers bounced around in his car, rocking it back and forth in the traffic.For many fans, it was a chance to soak in the unfamiliar sensation of victory. "[She] had a great love for her children, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and those who are less fortunate."Ms Lopez said Mr Keene had been struggling since the death of his partner and that he was not planning to attend the ceremony. He had received some comfort by the return of the couple's dog.

Clyde was thought to have been lost in the storm but he was in fact being cared for by an animal sanctuary in Los Angeles.Meanwhile, some New Orleans residents are trying to organise a permanent memorial to Ms Smith. Dr Lance Hill, a professor of history at the city's Tulane University, worked as a volunteer during the storm and came to learn about Ms Smith's makeshift grave He said he had made inquiries about a memorial at the site.. This year's success is an impressive achievement for a nation which, with only 1.1 million citizens, is the smallest in next summer's competition.Pearl, a retired civil servant, said the victory was special for her because, "as a Trinbagonian, I see myself as being recognised in the world - even though I'm not a football fan. The Soca Warriors, named after the Caribbean nation's idiosyncratic blend of music, have come nail-bitingly close to the World Cup finals twice, but missed out, first to Haiti in 1973, then to the United States in 1989. At the time, her partner Max Keene said: "A guy came round to say she was lying by the side of the road with a piece of cardboard over her.

It was me that went and put the tarp over her."I spoke to the police and asked them to take her away but they just told me to get the hell out of there."Ms Smith, who was born in Linares, Mexico, in 1939, was known to her friends and family as an ebullient, energetic woman who loved books and clothes and shoes and was a regular at the local Catholic church."Who can forget her boisterous laughter, flamboyant dress attire, abundance of shoes, purses, jewellery and her numerous styles and colours of wigs?" said her daughter. Our government did not do enough for our people," Ms Lopez said, speaking from her home in San Antonio, Texas "Five days her body was there. I have had people tell me that they went up to the police and were [asking them to help]. Finally we can do this."Ms Smith, 65, was killed by a hit-and-run driver the day after Hurricane Katrina struck at the end of August, when she had gone out to the local stores. For five full days the body of Vera Smith lay by the roadside in New Orleans - ignored by the authorities in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Someone covered her body with a tarpaulin and eventually her friends and neighbours built a makeshift grave and wrote: "Here Lies Vera. God Help Us." Almost three months later, she is finally to receive something more dignified. Next week, Ms Smith's ashes are to be buried following a Thanksgiving Day family get-together that she would normally have attended.