"He said I was OK to go," she said.

Workers at JFK began body temperature screenings Saturday of passengers from West Africa. Four other major airports, including Chicago's O'Hare, are expected to begin later this week.

Barhyeau Philips didn't know his daughter would be able to leave Liberia until he received a phone call from her the day before she flew out.

"I was skeptical," he said. "There was talk of a travel ban."

The 67-year-old said being reunited with his daughter makes him feel "so happy." Besides a brief visit to Liberia in 2013, he hadn't seen her since 2004, when they were living in a refugee camp in neighboring Ivory Coast. They had escaped war-torn Liberia a year before that.

"I'm happy to be with my parents," she said.

The family is imposing its own quarantine, though they're sure she doesn't have the disease. According to her father, Jennifer will stay inside the house for 21 days, the established quarantine period.

"We're going to monitor her for 21 days," he said. "When we're sure she's clear of Ebola, she's free to go anywhere."

Barhyeau Philips knows at least three Liberians who died from Ebola.