New Orleans evacuee now a Lyon student
September 12, 2005

A little more than a week ago, Neva Joseph was in New Orleans, surrounded by floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  Today, she is a new student at Lyon College. Neva registered for classes Wednesday, September 7, after she heard that Lyon was accepting displaced students

Neva Joseph (left) goes over her class schedule Wednesday with Associate Registrar Sarah Lassiter.

from the New Orleans area whose colleges have canceled the fall semester because of the flood and hurricane damage to their campuses.

Neva and her mother, Wanda T. Joseph, were evacuated to the Independence Baptist Camp at Bethesda September 4 after spending five harrowing days trapped in the devastation of New Orleans.

Neva would have been a sophomore at Loyola University in New Orleans this fall.

Neva and her mother were in their New Orleans home, she said, when it was completely flooded by the rising water. They were rescued from their home and taken to the convention center, where thousand of other evacuees were also taken.

But, Neva said, the convention center was full and she and her mother were not allowed inside, so they were stranded outside the center for five days. Finally, they were evacuated to Fort Chaffee, Ark., and later transferred to the Baptist camp at Bethesda.

Now Neva, a music major, is looking forward to her time at Lyon and to getting involved in campus life. She will be moving into one of the college’s apartment housing units and begin attending classes.

Thoughts of New Orleans and her family will not be far away, however. She said she is one of eight siblings living in the New Orleans area, and as of last week she had only heard from one brother, who had been in touch with another sister. The fate of the others was unknown.

Lyon College offered to accept up to 30 students from the New Orleans and Gulf Coast area affected by the disaster. Classes started at Lyon August 24, but the College extend enrollment to September 9.

The college is also allowing its guest house and faculty house to be used by families evacuated from the New Orleans area.

On Wednesday, the Presbyterian Women of First Presbyterian Church of Batesville voted to donate $200 in the form of a gift certificate to Neva. The donation came from the Katy Fund, an endowment of the church that was started by the Highsmith family in memory of Mrs. Katy Highsmith. The Presbyterian Women manage the fund.

The Institutional Advancement staff was also collecting donations to give to Neva and her mother.