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With the help of a medical school
employee, two elderly sisters
from New Orleans Reunite

By Meredith Raine

For almost eight decades, sisters Evelina Rodriguez and Melvina Myles never lived more than a local bus ride away from each other in New Orleans.

The waters that rose after Hurricane Katrina separated them, and neither knew where the other sister was or even if she had survived. They relied on hope and the help of a stranger from The University of Texas Medical School at Houston to reunite them.

In the hours after the levy broke and water poured into New Orleans, a rescue team in a helicopter plucked Evelina, 79, and a neighbor, who she affectionately refers to as her grandson, from her back porch.

“It was getting bad,” Evelina said. “I was glad when I seen that helicopter. There was no other way out.”

Meanwhile, Melvina, 78, had left her home and sought sanctuary in a Baptist church. When the church was evacuated, she made her way toward New Orleans City Hall. When a bus came to her rescue, she was holding a sign that stated, “Senior Citizens Need Help!”

Evelina, who has congestive heart failure and requires oxygen and a wheelchair, made her home in the blue section of “general population” at the George R. Brown Convention Center. When she wasn’t receiving treatment at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital, she rested on an air mattress on the floor of the convention center. All the while, her “grandson,” Justin Ford, watched over her.

Melvina ended up at the Reliant Center, surrounded by unfamiliar people whom she called her “roommates.”

“I was so worried about my sister,” Melvina said. “I’m tough, but she’s sick. She’s not as tough.”

“I was worried, too,” Evelina said. “It’s just the two of us now. We need each other.”

As the two sisters sat in separate shelters, not knowing they were once again only a short bus ride away from one another, Courtney Webb, a staff assistant in the dean’s office at the Medical School, was busy answering phones in UT’s command center at the convention center.

One of the many calls she took was from the sisters’ niece, Catteria. Catteria, who lives in Mississippi, was desperately searching for her two elderly aunts and wanted to know if either had been treated in the medical clinic set up by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Without hesitation, Courtney took on the task. A paper trail led her to LBJ, but Evelina had already been discharged and it was unclear where she had been transferred.

“On the second day of searching, I just started walking and paging their names over the intercom,” Courtney said. Eventually she found Evelina and Justin at the convention center, but Melvina was still missing. On Day 3 of the search, Courtney again paged and searched. “I heard she might be at Reliant, so I sent a friend down to put up a sign, asking Melvina to call my cell phone.”

Melvina heard her name over the loud speaker. “I just froze when they said, “Miss Melvina Myles, we’ve found your sister. I had to walk like nine blocks to the information desk, and when I got there, I called the number.”

Courtney answered and made arrangements for the sisters to be reunited at George R. Brown. She personally picked up Melvina and drove her to the convention center. At this point, they’d been separated at least a week.

“It felt so good,” Evelina said. “I just said, “Oh my God, thank you, Jesus. God is good. God is really good.”

Melvina said she doesn’t know how she would have located her sister if it hadn’t been for Courtney. “She was working hard for us, baby,” Melvina said. “She’s just wonderful.”

Even after the sisters’ reunion, Courtney didn’t stop. She helped make arrangements for the niece, Catteria, to come down from Mississippi to pick up her aunts. On Saturday morning, the three reunited and Catteria took them to her home in Mississippi.

“I’m just so glad to know that my family is safe and well,” Catteria said. “Their lives are the most important thing. Everything else is replaceable.”

When it is safe, the sisters hope to return to their homes in New Orleans. Meanwhile, Evelina’s “grandson,” Justin, has decided to stay in Houston and get a job as a cook.

“I’m so happy for them, but it was hard to see them go,” Courtney said. “They are like my family now.”