Katrina rescuer finds his own saviour
10 years after hurricane, traumatized airman to see girl who restored his faith
The child known only as Katrina Girl or Katrina Kid now has a name — LaShay Brown.
Brown’s beaming smile became famous when a picture of her giving U.S. air force pararescuer Michael Maroney a hug was published by media outlets around the world.
“She wrapped me up in the hug and time stopped. And I just stopped, and enjoyed every second of that hug,” he told the Star back in March.
It became one of the iconic images of hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans 10 years ago this week. But her name was never known.
For the past five years, on the anniversary of their chance meeting on Sept. 6, the now-retired Maroney has posted the picture online in the hope that someone, somewhere, knew who she was.
His search took off this winter, after the Air Force Times ran a story on his mission and started the hashtag #findkatrinakid. Thousands of people shared the picture online, in the hope that the two would be reunited. But although he got a few leads, nothing panned out.
Then, a few days ago, a friend of LaShay’s messaged Maroney’s son on Instagram, he told the Star on Wednesday.
“Hi, I’m friends with the girl that your father’s been looking for,” Maroney said the friend had written.
The friend sent a picture of LaShay, taken in Tennessee not long after the rescue in New Orleans. Now 13, LaShay is living in Mississippi, where her family eventually settled after the hurricane. “It was the little girl,” Maroney said. Maroney said the outpouring of support online has given him newfound faith in human kindness. “It’s restored my hope.” After speaking on the phone to LaShay and her mother, Maroney plans to meet her in New Orleans in a few weeks. When the pair finally meet, he plans to give her some gifts, including a collection of newspaper clippings about his search.
But one thing he doesn’t want to give her is a media circus, he said. His search has attracted a lot of attention, and he’s wary of making their personal reunion a public spectacle.
“When I . . . meet her, I want it to be mellow,” he said.
Maroney said LaShay doesn’t remember anything about the rescue, but it’s for the best.
Her mother, Shawntrell, filled him in on the details of their escape from the storm, and their struggles to find a home since. The family had been without food or water for about a week before Maroney picked them up near the convention centre.
It took a little while to find LaShay, in part because Maroney misremembered some of the details. He thought they’d been in waist-deep water near the Fair Grounds Race Course, but they were picked up at the convention centre, where the water reached only their ankles.
The family was sent to a shelter for flood victims in Tennessee. They then settled in Mississippi, where Shawntrell had some family and got a job at a local Dollar Tree. Life hasn’t been easy, Shawntrell told Maroney, but her daughter’s smile has helped sustain them, she said.
“She said to me her daughter’s always had that smile and is very loving. . . . She’s just happy to share her happiness,” he said.
“That hug was just a pure moment of joy, saying thank you.”
Maroney said he is “ecstatic” to have finally found the girl he saved,
“I’ve seen some really, really dark, depressing, destroyed things and that smile fights them all off.” MICHAEL MARONEY RETIRED AIR FORCE PARARESCUER
who in turn helped save him from post-traumatic stress disorder that plagued him after rescue missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans and the Philippines.
“I’ve seen some really, really dark, depressing, destroyed things and that smile fights them all off,” he said back in March. “That smile and that hug and that moment is a shining star in a world that’s gone wrong.”