Michael Davenport, president/CEO of the $12.7 million IntegrisFCU, was scheduled to reunite Oct. 20 with a young woman he pluckedfrom flood waters 10 years ago in the wake of Hurricane Rita.

In addition to serving the Tulsa, Okla.-based cooperative,Davenport also worked as a reserve deputy sheriff. It was in thatcapacity Integris' board of directors voted unanimously toauthorize him leave so he could deploy with other law enforcementto South Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina came ashore in 2005.

However, when that deployment put Davenport and fellow lawenforcement officers squarely in the path of Hurricane Rita onSept. 24, 2005, the mission changed from stabilizing chaoticcommunities after Katrina to providing front line assistance toRita victims.

“I remember waking up to the organizers telling us that we weregoing to have a new mission, but that they couldn't send us justthen,” Davenport said, adding that he came for Katrina but stayedfor Rita.

“The wind howled around this place where we stayed and itshuddered,” Davenport said, “and the rain beat down in sheets andit was pretty clear we couldn't go out just then. But as soon asthe weather let up enough we said, 'let's go find some people' andheaded out.”

Davenport recalled the girl – whom he later learned was namedHanna – and her family had been stranded by the flood without foodor water for hours. Davenport and his fellow officers had a flatbottomed, local fishing boat and were able to get the family tosafety, albeit with some difficulty.

“Hannah would have been five at the time and she was scared,”Davenport explained. “So I started calling her darling and mygirlfriend to get her to jump to us. You know, 'come one darling,you can do it' and 'c'mon on, girlfriend,' and when she finallyjumped to me, we pretty much bonded.”

Hannah and her family were generally unhurt. However, Hannah'saunt received a gash on her leg and Davenport said the team foundit difficult to find something clean and dry they could use tobandage it.

“In the end, the only thing we could find clean and dry was oneof those diapers,” Davenport said, “so that's what we used, thatdiaper.”

Davenport said he and his wife, Maria,wondered what happened to Hannah and her family after he returnedhome to Tulsa. After almost a decade, he decided to find out.

“I called down to the sheriff's office closest to where she hadbeen living,” Davenport said. “But they really weren't thatinterested in helping me. Then I thought to call the school systemsdown there. Well, I got a really nice lady who said that she wasn'tsure she could help me, but was willing to try.”

Davenport shared a photo of him holding Hannah to help theschool administrator identify the girl, but said he wasn't sure itwould pay off. However, the school assistant called him backsoon after with good news. She had found a student named Hannah inthe school system and showed the photo to the 15-year-old.

“She called Hannah into the office and showed her the pictureand asked her if she recognized it,” Davenport said. “Hannahsaid right off, 'yes, that's me,'” Davenport explained.

Once the school system got involved, the reunion began to grow,Davenport explained. The school system joined forces with parishes(counties) in area and some municipalities to invite the creditunion CEO and his wife to reunite with Hannah and her family, andalso tour the communities to see the recovery.

Davenport explained he wanted to look up Hannah in order to drawattention to a story that, he said, was so much better than otherstories about Katrina and Rita.

“If you wanted stories about system failure and chaos and peoplepointing guns at us and generally acting less than civilized, wehad lots of those stories.” Davenport said. “But this story, thelast one from when we were down there, how some people were able toget rescued … we wanted this one to be the story that gotremembered,” he added.