Her first priority was a tour of some of the bigger restaurants in downtown Dallas to see if anyone needed a waitress with 10 years' experience. Her old job in New Orleans has gone, swept away along with her family's home and any hope they might have had of resuming a normal life.
"There's nothing left for us in New Orleans, I guess we've got to make a new start and make the best of what we got," said Mrs Kell, 28, who has spent three nights in a Red Cross shelter in Dallas with her daughter Keisha, four, and her son Daryn, six - and thousands of other evacuees. Her husband Sidney stayed in the shelter to look after the children so she could begin job hunting.
Like so many of those displaced by the flooding that followed last week's catastrophic storm, the Kells think they will probably never return to New Orleans, even after the city is drained and rebuilt. They are a religious family and instead of bemoaning their misfortune, chose instead to rise to the challenge of starting anew.
"God will show us the way ahead and help us build, because he kept us safe and together," said Mrs Kell, who also hopes to find a cheap apartment in Dallas where they can live.
The family has only the few possessions they managed to cram into two large suitcases before they fled their home for the Louisiana Superdome when water levels began to rise: clothes, two dolls for the children and their birth certificates.
She realises it will not be easy, despite the immediate help of aid agencies such as the Red Cross, longer-term financial support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and the warm hospitality, for now at least, of the Dallas population.
Jason Paul, a Red Cross spokesman for two shelters in the city that have 14,000 registered evacuees, said the response of local families had been "overwhelming" in offering their spare rooms and that the owners of several businesses had driven in to invite people for interviews.
Even so, the number of those seeking accommodation and jobs will far outstrip supply and there are concerns of racial tensions in some areas of Texas that have suddenly acquired a sizeable influx of black evacuees.
"I've got to get a job and we need somewhere to live but I'm more worried about my kids. They've lost their friends and they've got to go to school where they don't know no one," said Mrs Kell.
She added that her husband would probably try to find construction work helping to rebuild the hurricane-ravaged areas, another test to be faced and overcome because it would mean the family splitting up for a while.
Fema officials were arriving in Dallas yesterday to start offering support to evacuees housed at the Reunion Arena and Convention Centre, where the Kells were taken after their bus was turned away in Houston when the Astrodome reached capacity.
Money from the agency will help the evacuees find their feet in the short-term, but after spending five "nights of hell" in the Louisiana Superdome and hearing several broken promises from officials that buses to take them out were on their way, fellow refugee Cornelius Johns was not confident.
"What they say doesn't always come true," said the 52-year-old plumber from New Orleans. "Those of us who lost everything we had, we need that money, we need that help now."
At the Dallas Convention Centre yesterday, where almost 2,000 people had slept overnight on cots and inflatable mattresses, children were picking through a pile of soft toys, books and games donated by well-wishers, and hundreds of volunteers were cooking and serving hot dogs for the evacuees in batches of a hundred at a time.
Locals have given so many clothes, shoes, toiletries and other supplies that the Red Cross has closed the shelters to new donations.
Ruth Veal, an elderly evacuee who enjoyed her first hot meal and shower in more than a week, said it was a far cry from the misery of the Superdome with its stifling heat, overflowing toilets and marauding gangs.
"The people of Dallas have been very kind," she said. "Anything good you can say about anyone anywhere you can say it about Dallas."
Yet not everything has gone smoothly. Texas has put up the "state full" sign after absorbing 240,000 evacuees in less than five days and Governor Rick Parry has made arrangements for new arrivals to be flown to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan or Iowa. One flight of evacuees from New Orleans was diverted to Phoenix, Arizona, after a brief stop in Dallas.
The mayor of Dallas, Laura Miller, has also criticised Mr Perry for not supplying state aid and for not providing notice that several busloads of evacuees were on the way after Houston reached capacity.
