SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ABP) — McKinnley Pittman lost all his phone numbers in the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, and for eight days he didn't know if he also had lost his wife.
Pittman took his wife, Geraldine, to a niece's house outside of New Orleans on Sunday, Aug. 28, to shelter her from the incoming Category 5 hurricane. Then he went back to his New Orleans home to ride out the storm.
“Monday night I went to bed and everything was okay, we had survived, and there was no water on the ground,” he recalled.
But the next morning, after the levees began giving way, he awoke to find his van already under water to its tailpipe. He moved to a neighbor's house that had a second floor. But the water kept rising.
Finally, after five days, he was rescued by helicopter. “But I didn't have any of my papers with me,” he said, including family phone numbers.
He eventually was taken to a shelter at Churchill Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, being operated by Baptist Child and Family Services of San Antonio. He mentioned his plight to John Nelson, a member of Churchill Baptist who, with his wife and son, was working as a volunteer at the shelter.
“He couldn't remember the name of the town near Philadelphia where his daughter lived, only that it had five or six letters and was north of Philly,” Nelson said. He went home and brought back maps for Pittman to look at, but still no luck.
But Pittman did remember his son-in-law's name: Edward Lebreaux. That was enough for Nelson, with the help of the Internet, to come up with a promising name.
“I called and asked the woman who answered if she knew a Mr. Pittman. She did. It was her daddy,” Nelson said.
Even better news, Geraldine Pittman had called her daughter from a shelter in Baton Rouge just 15 minutes earlier.
Nelson was able to call the shelter and get Geraldine on the phone. He handed the phone to a surprised Pittman.
“Hey, woman! Where have you been hiding?” Pittman asked, grinning and weeping at the same time. “I've been looking all over the world for you?”
After hanging up, with a promise to call back soon, he kept repeating, “Thank you, Lord, Thank you, Jesus.”
Moments later the daughter reported back in: A flight to get the mother from Baton Rogue to San Antonio would be impossible for several days.
“If we have to, I can drive and get her and bring her here,” Nelson promised Pittman.
Instead, Nelson made plans for McKinnley and Geraldine Pittman to be reunited at the home of their daughter in Philadelphia.
On Sept. 6, Nelson put Pittman on a plane to Philadelphia. One day later, Geraldine arrived from Baton Rouge.
“I didn't do this, and the Internet didn't do this,” Nelson said. “God did it. We're just doing what we should be doing to help these people.”