NEW ORLEANS — Members of Indiana Task Force 1 deployed in Louisiana to help respond to Hurricane Ida went the extra mile for a stranded civilian.
Hurricane Ida approached the coast Saturday bringing along with it dangerous winds and powerful storms. As the Category 4 storm neared Louisiana, citizens were bracing for impact.
IN-TF1 was in Louisiana Saturday. In the afternoon, they were standing by, awaiting a community center to be prepared for their arrival.
While they were waiting, a man nearby came up to them and said he had run out of gas. To make matters worse, he also needed someone to help push his truck out of the main portion of the road.
Several IN-TF1 members rushed to help push his truck out of the way of traffic.
The owner of the truck went to get gas and discovered the gas station didn't have any.
This wasn't unusual in Louisiana. Many gas stations across Louisiana and in neighboring states were out of fuel as people tried to fill up and flee the state ahead of Ida making landfall.
But, IN-TF1 members weren't going to give up that easy.
Task Force Leader Gerald George and Safety Officer Brent Anderson grabbed one of the IN-TF1 spare gas cans and gave the man some gas to get home.
IN-TF1 said, "he was overwhelmed by this gesture and thanked all the members of IN-TF1 for their kindness."
Ida made landfall on Sunday leaving downed trees, powerlines and widespread outages in its wake. On Sunday night all of New Orleans was without power.
IN-TF1 was ordered to move toward New Orleans on Monday morning.
IN-TF1 said communication is intermittent due to infrastructure damage but the team is healthy and ready to carry out any mission received.
