The hashtag #FindKatrinaGirl is exploding on social media. Ten years after the devastating hurricane ravaged New Orleans, an Air Force veteran is searching for a little girl he helped rescue from a flooded street in her neighborhood.



In his first on-camera interview, Michael Maroney told Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga why she’s had such an impact on him.



“To be that strong in the face of adversity was mind-blowing. It touched my heart,” he said.

Maroney, who is now a master sergeant at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, says his chopper dropped the girl with the cute pigtails, and her family off at Louis Armstrong International Airport, but he never had a chance to get the name of the girl who wrapped him in a huge hug.











#FindKatrinaGirl





“It was just the moment. You don’t ask people those kind of things. I didn’t think anything of it. I like to rescue people. To get a hug like that. If I never did anything else again, that hug would be enough.”









The search is on to help reunite Maroney with the girl in the photograph. If he’s lucky enough to find her, he has a very simple wish.



“I just want to hug her and her mom and say how have you been?”













