It was nearing the end of the summer season in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana, and altered the lives of thousands of people forever.
This video shared by Wonderbot tells the story of a 3-year-old little girl who was brought to safety during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the arms of a brave rescue worker.
Prior to the worst of the hurricane hitting, the city officials in New Orleans issued an evacuation order for residents as they predicted conditions would escalate quickly.
However, there were some residents who could not escape due to transportation restrictions. A lot of those individuals decided to shelter in place at a local sports stadium or simply stay in their homes and hope for the best.
When the hurricane was done, approximately 80% of the city was submerged under water in some capacity with thousands of residents stranded and awaiting help. Para-rescue specialist Mike Maroney was on one of the crews sent out to do search and rescue missions in the area.
He happened to find little LaShay Brown and her family on one of his missions and minutes after their rescue, LaShay threw her arms around Mike and gave him a giant appreciative hug. The heartfelt moment happened to be caught on film by a press photographer and it quickly spread around the world.
Mike was so moved by this particular mission that he took the photo keepsake with him on tours of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Approximately 10 years after the epic rescue, Mike decided that he wanted to properly meet the little girl from the photograph, so he launched an online campaign in hopes of reconnecting.
To find out what happened and how the two stay connected to this day, watch the video.
