Katrina survivor reunited with airman who saved her

Helicopter rescuer Michael Maroney gets a hug from LeShay Brown after his Katrina mercy mission. Photo / Veronica Pierce, US Air Force

It was a heartening moment captured amid overwhelming bleakness: a 3-year-old Hurricane Katrina survivor wrapping her chubby little arms round the air force pararescue jumper who had rappelled into New Orleans to save the girl's family from floodwaters.

The 2005 photograph showing a toddler with pigtails and an ear-to-ear grin holding tight to Staff Sergeant Michael Maroney was soon everywhere - plastered on Burger King placemats, AT&T phone cards, a magazine cover.

For many people, including Maroney, the photo represented hope at a time of total devastation.

"It had been such a rough week; when she wrapped me up in that hug, I was in la-la land," Maroney, now 40, told the Washington Post. "Nothing else existed. I was just loving that hug."

Maroney never got the child's name, and he has never stopped trying to find her.

Now, he has.

LeShay Brown, now 13, lives with her family in Waveland, Mississippi.

The girl and her relatives plan to meet Maroney in New Orleans this month.

"I can't wait to meet her to tell her how important she is," Maroney told People magazine. "In my line of work, it doesn't usually turn out happily. This hug, this moment, was like - everybody I've ever saved, that was the thank you."

In September 2005, Maroney was sent to New Orleans to find survivors after Katrina. LeShay's family was waiting to be rescued, and the young girl soon found herself in Maroney's MH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter.

"It's okay," LeShay told her mother at the time, according to Air Force Times. "We're safe. Don't worry."

Maroney is now an air force reservist who instructs pararescue jumpers in San Antonio, Texas, and for years since the rescue he has been searching for the girl, posting messages on Facebook and Instagram.

In February this year, 16-year-old Andrew Goard from Waterford, Michigan, started the #FindKatrinaGirl campaign.

The next month, the Air Force Times wrote about Maroney's quest to find the girl.

"I would love to get another hug and see how she's doing," Maroney told the Washington Post at the time.

The news eventually made its way back to LeShay Brown.

"The whole neighbourhood told us they saw LeShay on the news and everybody told us someone was looking for her," her mother told People.