She Was Separated from Her Mom for 3 Weeks After Hurricane Katrina as a Toddler. How PEOPLE Helped Them Reunite (Exclusive)

Kalise Barrows, then just 20 months old, was separated from her mother, Keishall, after the chaos of the hurricane in 2005

Keishall Barrow was just 22 years old when she lost her husband in a tragic car accident and suddenly became a single mom to three small children. So, when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Barrow, like many residents of New Orleans, wasn’t prepared for just how much devastation the disaster was going to bring.

At the time, Barrow was working and going to school, and each of her children — 2 year old Kenya, 20 month old Kalise and 10 month old Kalin — were all residing with different loved ones.

Some 24 hours after the hurricane was over, Barrow began what would become a three-week search to find missing daughter Kalise.

“The hurricane hit. We didn’t know it was going to be as bad as it was, so we were all scrambling. Everything was flooded. Everybody’s crying,” Barrow recalls. “The next morning I told my aunt, ‘I have to go to the [New Orleans] Superdome. I have to see if I see my mom, my son and [daughters].’ ”

Two days later, Barrow arrived at the Superdome, where she signed in upon arrival.

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“And I turned around, and my mom and son are standing right behind me. They had just got rescued off the boats and just made it there at the same time as me,” she says. “I remember I just started crying and just screaming and hollering. It was an emotional moment.”

Safely reunited with her mother and son, Barrow still needed to locate her two daughters. Her search took her next to Houston, Texas, where she searched the Astrodome for Kenya and Kalise.

“I break down crying, and my phone rings in that moment. It's my kid's auntie. Kenya was with them," Barrow explains of the news she received while in Texas. "She says, ‘Sister, we're in Atlanta. Everybody is fine.' "

Still, Barrow couldn't locate Kalise. The toddler wasn't anywhere in Houston at the Astrodome nor was she with her sister, Kenya.

“At this point I have my son. I have my mom. I know that Kenya is okay. She's just in Atlanta. And I'm like, ‘Okay, what about Kalise?’ ” says Barrow, getting choked up as she revisits the memory.

Unbeknownst to the mother of three, deep in her search for her daughter, a PEOPLE story was already in the works: Kalise was safe in Mississippi — and PEOPLE published a call to help identify the child and locate her guardians.

After Barrow had returned home from the Atstrodome, desperate to find her daughter but still with no answers, her phone once again started ringing, this time "off the hook."

“That day was the day that Kalise came out front page, People Magazine: ‘Who is this child?’ ” she says. "People began to match the names with the story. The first lady that called me, I’ll never forget her, she said, 'Keishall? Kalise is in Mississippi. Call the sheriff’s department. They know where your daughter is.’ ”

Barrow rushed to book her bus ticket to Mississippi.

“Not only did the sheriff know who Kalise was, they had been buying diapers and milk and everything for her, the sheriff and his wife. They really knew her,” says Barrow. “And when Kalise saw me walking in, she had fire in her feet. She said, ‘Mama!’ and took off running to me.”

PEOPLE published a follow-up story on the reunited mother and daughter, which ran in October 2005.

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Fast forward almost two decades and her daughter Kalise, now 20, is studying at California State Dominguez Hills to become a journalist herself, says Barrow.

She adds, “I say, ‘Kalise, tell your story. Because what are the odds you were in PEOPLE, and now here you are? You’re going to be telling other people’s stories, but guess what? You already have a story to tell, baby.’ ”

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