I would like to know if Melvin Byrd and his wife Bettie of Gulfport, MS, are safe somewhere. I hope they evacuated before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

Melvin is a descendant of Hezekiah Byrd, Josiah Walton Byrd Sr., and Absalom B. Byrd who lived in Greene Co., MS. Melvin is my mother's second cousin, and he and I have corresponded a lot about our mutual ancestors.