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Local pilot to fly water purifiers to Louisiana
A Central Florida pilot is heading to Louisiana to help out following Hurricane Ida.
TITUSVILLE, Fla. - Much of Louisiana is drying out and taking stock of the damage after Hurricane Ida made landfall there last weekend.
As people now work to recover and rebuild, Titusville pilot Joe Hurston, from Air Mobile Ministries, is headed to Cajun Country to help.
"You've heard the stories of Lafitte where they're trapped in the attic with the alligators swimming in the living room, that's a picture. That's all throughout southern Louisiana, which is my neck of the woods, I'm from there," Hurston said.
Hurston and his group are bringing more than just thoughts and prayers.
He's transporting 10 high-tech water purifiers, capable of treating massive amounts of otherwise undrinkable water.
Each of these high-tech water purifiers can bring fresh water to a thousand people a day.
Hurston says he's going to be delivering these units outside of the major urban centers to the smaller communities where they're desperately needed.
"The big cities," Hurston said, "they've got big trucks, and thank God they can distribute out of there. But where our unit really shines is getting into those little isolated places."
When he lands, Hurston will distribute the units to communities with the boatmen of the so-called "Cajun Navy."
His friend Lou Larsen showed up Friday morning to get an extra purifier bound for earthquake-hit Haiti.
"You cannot last, I forget, I think three days without water," Larsen said, "so it's the most vital thing people need. When these tragedies happen, that's the first thing that goes bad."
When this mission is done, Hurston says he'll also return to Haiti with more purifiers.
But for now, he says he's headed to the Bayou State.
"When you're able to bring clean water in where they don't have it," he said, "that's a big deal."