Although he was only 3 years old when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Jirron Minor Jr. still remembers parts of that frightening time — like how floodwaters reached the second floor of his family’s New Orleans home.
“I remember the storm hitting,” says Minor, now 23 and living in Oklahoma City. “Just that emotion of feeling scared, feeling like I’m not going to make it.”
It was an especially stressful time for his family because Jirron’s newborn twin sisters, Yakierra and Yasmine, weren’t with them.
The twins were born on Aug. 25, 2005 — just four days before the hurricane — at 34 weeks. They were being cared for at New Orleans’ Touro Infirmary.
Their mother, Yashica Blackstone, had to leave the hospital on Aug. 28, the day before Katrina made landfall.
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“I thought since the storm was coming maybe they’d let me stay [at the hospital],” Yashica told PEOPLE in 2005, “but the doctor said I had to leave.”
On Aug. 30, 2005, Yakierra and Yasmine were airlifted with other premature babies from Touro Infirmary to Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas.
Meanwhile, Jirron Jr. and his mom were rescued by the Coast Guard from their flooded home. His father, Jirron Minor Sr., was already in Oklahoma before the storm hit.
After being rescued, Jirron Jr. and Yashica boarded a bus headed to the Astrodome in Houston. At first, they had no idea where the twins had been taken.
“We had to backtrack, try to figure out where everybody was, who knew who and what hospital they were put in,” he recalls.
A friend eventually located the babies through the internet, and Yashica was reunited with them on Sept. 4, 2005, at Medical City Children’s.
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“It was just a relief,” she said at the time, explaining that the twins were healthy and ready to be released.
The family stayed in Texas for a while before moving to Oklahoma to join Jirron Sr., where they have lived ever since.
Jirron Jr. says his mom helped him go to therapy as a child to cope with the trauma. While many memories of that time are blurry, some stand out — like the water, the darkness, and holding a flashlight while surrounded by floodwaters.
“I remember even seeing the water and stuff. I remember how certain vehicles were sitting outside and parked. I had a toy sitting out in the front yard and it floated away,” he says.
He also remembers eating the same food for days. “I hate Vienna sausages to this day,” Jirron admits.
Yashica passed away in January 2020 in Oklahoma, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Jirron says he owes much of his strength during Katrina to her.
“I was by my mom’s side mainly,” he says. “I was glad to even just have her, just somebody there to guide me. Even though she just got done giving birth, she was still there right next to me and willing to help me, just nurture me through that.”
Today, Yakierra and Yasmine are 20, attending college and “doing good, living life,” according to their older brother. The siblings also have a younger sister, Ya’Lanna, who was born in Oklahoma after the family relocated.
“When we tell her [about Katrina], it’s just like brand new information,” Jirron says.
And that, he adds, is a blessing: “I’m glad she wasn’t able to experience it like we did.”
