Katrina evacuee gets call from his daughter, family OK

George Stewart can now exhale.
The New Orleans native and Hurricane Katrina evacuee has found his family.
Three days after arriving at the Wesley Methodist Center, a sanctuary and chapel located near Southern University, he received a call from his daughter, who he affectionately calls “Skinny.”
Stewart said the director of the center, Rev. Rodney D. Wooten, told him that someone had called for him. Little did Stewart know it was Skinny.
“She said, ‘Daddy,’ ” Stewart said. “I just said, ‘Skinny.’ When I heard that voice, I grabbed my fist and started crying.”
Just to be sure, Stewart said he played a game with her that only the two would know.
“I asked, ‘What is your last name,’ ”
he said. “She said, ‘Last name Stewart.’
“I always said, ‘Stewarts, when times get rough and your back is against the wall, you keep pushing,’ and she started laughing,” he said.
He said his daughter found him after searching his name on the Internet. Relived, Stewart said he sat, talked to his daughter and got information on the rest of his family. His wife Joyce, 55 and her sister, Jennifer Larch, 54, had fled to Florida, he said.
It was Sept. 7, when Stewart arrived at the Wesley Center, penniless after walking more than 80 miles for two days from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
Stewart, 57, said prior military experience gave him the instincts that he wasn’t safe in New Orleans after the storm hit. So the Vietnam veteran headed north on La. Highway 61, or Airline Highway. Accompanied by only an extra day of clothes in his backpack and three bottles of orange juice, he headed to Baton Rouge, where he thought he could find help.
When Stewart — a Southern alumnus — arrived at Southern, a faculty member directed him to the Wesley Center, where he received room and boarding, along with a hot shower.
Wooten, moved by Stewart’s toil and story, said Stewart’s eventual departure will be an emotional one.
“He doesn’t have to leave at all,” Wooten said. “That brought tears to my eyes (and while he was talking), he kept pumping his fists and crying.
“(It’s good) to see him so happy,” Wooten said. “Because he didn’t have any hope.”
Stewart said his daughter immediately wired him money, but students on campus have also shown him love. He said he has received a new backpack and other paraphernalia.
“She said don’t worry about anything,” Stewart said.
Stewart said now that he knows where his family is, he can map out a plan.
“First I’m going to get a place to stay,” he said. “Then a job and a cell phone.
“I feel a hundred percent better,” he said.