Look For the Helpers: United Cajun Navy Steps Up to Help NOLA Terror Attack Victim

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) January 4, 2025

Things like this can happen anytime, anywhere. Attacks like this leave scars that never fully heal. Terrorists can hurt us, but so long as there are men and women like those from New Orleans Police, Fire and EMS, Healthcare workers, and the United Cajun Navy that stand ready to help, they will never defeat us.

— ×Punkness× (@Punkness1) October 4, 2024

Jeremi Sensky traveled from his Pennsylvania home to celebrate the New Year with his family in New Orleans. Sensky is a paraplegic and has been wheelchair-bound for years after a car accident left him paralyzed. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was hit by the truck during the attack on Bourbon Street.

— ABC News (@ABC) January 5, 2025

Sensky survived his ordeal but suffered fractures to both legs. He was transported to the University Medical Center, where he underwent surgery to repair his damaged legs. His wheelchair was not only left in pieces but was also being held as evidence by police investigating the attack.

They make them pretty tough in Western Pennsylvania.

In his 1983 book ‘Mister Rogers Talks With Parents,’ Fred Rogers explains what his mother would say to him when, as a young boy, he was scared by things he saw on the news.

Tony Dickey is a chaplain with the United Cajun Navy who was at the hospital to offer counseling to the family. When he learned what had happened to Sensky’s wheelchair, he did what members of the United Cajun Navy do. He stepped up to help, contacted a paramobile organization, and got Sensky a brand new custom wheelchair.

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The United Cajun Navy continues its work today as a nonprofit disaster relief organization. They recently responded to North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene, delivering supplies with horses and mules to areas where the storm had washed away the roads.

The words of Mister Rogers’ mom held true when a radicalized maniac drove a truck through a crowd of people celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The senseless act of terror would leave at least 14 dead and dozens more injured. Then the helpers came.

In an interview, Sensky said of the attack, ‘This could happen anytime, anywhere. What are you going to do? Stop living your life.’

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a group of men with boats helped evacuate stranded victims, delivered supplies, and provided access to otherwise unreachable areas. These men would come to be known as The Cajun Navy.

Sometimes, that help comes from unexpected places.

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