Halldór Gunnarsson, a carpenter and mason from Njardvík, located the two women who had been missing after Hurricane Katrina passed through the southern US last week.
One Icelander, a 67 year old woman living in New Orleans, is still missing.
Karly Jóna Kristjánsdóttir Legere was very happy to see Halldór when he knocked on her front door yesterday. She lives with her husband and sons and was, according to Halldór, in good condition.
Halldór has lived in the US for 12 years and worked in Karly’s neighborhood, but it was not until the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked him to go to her house that he realized that she lived in the vicinity. “I’ve driven by her house for 10 years without knowing that inside it lived an Icelander,” said Halldór in an interview with Morgunbladid.
Halldór said that Lilja Ólafsdóttir Hanch had also happy to see him, “I knocked on her door and she was incredibly happy to see me, barely believed her own eyes,” said Halldór.
Halldór said that that Lilja was fine.There were some leaks in her house but she had dried everything up and made the house “spick and spam”. She has one son and her husband is stationed at a US army base in Japan.
Halldór lives in the US with his American wife and three young children.
Halldór told the Morgunbladid that it would take 4 – 5 years to rebuild the area but said that he was not leaving. “This will be ok. I am an Icelander and we don´t give up.”
