Michael Davenport, the president/CEO of the $12.7 million, 2,300-member Integris Federal Credit Union, and his wife Maria will travel to Southern Louisiana Tuesday to reunite with a young woman whom he plucked from flooding waters in the wake of Hurricane Rita 10 years ago.
In addition to serving the Tulsa, Okla.-based cooperative, Davenport also worked as a reserve deputy sheriff at the time. Due to that role, Integris FCU's board of directors voted unanimously to authorize time off for him to deploy to South Louisiana with other law enforcement officers after Hurricane Katrina came ashore in 2005.
However, when that deployment put Davenport and fellow officers squarely in the path of Hurricane Rita on Sept. 24, 2005, Davenport found the mission changed from helping stabilize communities post-Katrina to providing front-line assistance to Rita victims.
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"I remember waking up to the organizers telling us that we were going to have a new mission, but that they couldn't send us just then," Davenport explained, also commenting that he "came for Katrina, but stayed for Rita."
"The wind howled around this place where we stayed and it shuddered," Davenport said. "And the rain beat down in sheets and it was pretty clear we couldn't go out just then. But as soon as the weather let up enough we said, 'Let's go find some people,' and headed out."
Davenport recalled that the girl, whom he later learned was named Hannah, and her family had been stranded by the flood and without food or water for hours. Using a flat bottomed, local fishing boat, he and his fellow officers were able to get the family to safety – 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 'girlfriend' to get her to jump to us. You know, 'Come on darling, you can do it,' and 'C'mon on girlfriend,' and when she finally jumped to me, we pretty much bonded."
Hannah and her family were mostly unharmed, but Hannah's aunt received a gash on her leg. Davenport said the team found it difficult to find something clean and dry they could use to bandage it.
"In the end, the only thing we could find clean and dry was one of those diapers," Davenport said. "So that's what we used, that diaper."
Find out how Davenport found the family after 10 years and how they marked the anniversary in an upcoming print issue of CU Times.
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