Born in New Orleans in the sixties, Antoine Gautreaux grew up near the French Quarter. He still lives there in a rented apartment. Gautreaux hangs Sheet Rock for a living. He’s married and has three children in secondary schools.

Like thousands of others, the Gautreaux family fails to flee as Hurricane Katrina approaches the Gulf Coast, driving headlong toward The Big Easy. Those remaining behind are now told to go immediately to the Louisiana Superdome where they’ll have a better chance of survival from the expected storm surge.

Days later, hungry, thirsty and without spare clothing, Gautreaux’s family, and thousands of others, are taken to Houston. After that, they are airlifted to Atlanta as refugees of America’s most destructive storm.

Soon, Gautreaux and two other New Orleans men are standing on a street corner in Atlanta waiting to be picked up for a temporary construction job in the city. While they are waiting, they see a man holding a plastic bag attacked by another man wielding a knife.

The victim is a landlord on his way to the bank carrying $10,000 in rent receipts. The attacker grabs the bag and runs. When Gautreaux and his buddies hear the victim’s cries for help, one of the men goes to his aid while the other two run in pursuit of the attacker.

Just as Gautreaux and his companion catch up to the fleeing robber they spot him trying to force a woman out of her car at a stop light — in an attempted carjacking.

Without giving it a second thought, Gautreaux tackles the robber. The two construction workers pin the robber down while the woman calls the cops on her cell phone.

We’ve heard no follow-up to this heroic story, but it’s hard to imagine people exhibiting that kind of courage, especially after the ordeal they’d just experienced back home in New Orleans. Gautreaux and friends — we salute you!