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Though light, Rita toll hits county hard
Published October 2, 2005
ANGLETON — A generation apart, it was the shadow of the U.S. flag that struck up an instant friendship between Theodore “Ted” Petrie and G.O. Terrell.
Kindhearted and generous as he was, it was his ability to connect with people that made Petrie, an 83-year-old Maine native and decorated World War II veteran with a green thumb, stand out the most, Terrell said.
“I’d lost my parents back-to-back about four years ago, and me and Ted just hit it off good,” said Terrell, a Vietnam veteran and a neighbor who met Petrie and his wife, Beula, 82, two years ago.
Concerned for his pal, Terrell helped Petrie gas up his RV and urged him to leave Angleton on Sept. 20, as Hurricane Rita stalked the area.
Terrell and his wife, Melva, left for Conroe the next morning.
He returned to a note from his landlord taped to his door. It delivered news of an accident.
Terrell called Memorial Hermann Hospital looking for Petrie. He was forwarded to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.
A Texas Department of Public Safety report shows the Petries were driving their motorhome west on FM 1462 near Brazos Bend State Park in southern Fort Bend County about 4:50 p.m. Sept. 21.
The vehicle left the roadway and struck a culvert. Theodore Petrie was taken to the Houston hospital with head injuries. He was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m., reports show.
Petrie’s wife sustained a broken pelvis and was eventually taken to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. She was listed in critical condition Friday, a hospital spokesperson said.
Neither was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, the report shows.
Ted Petrie was one of at least 11 Brazoria County residents who died during the Hurricane Rita evacuation last week.
The age of the victims ranged from 17-year-old Yesenia Mathis, of Rosharon, who died from overheating during the evacuation along Interstate 45 near Huntsville, to 90-year-old Margaret Bell of Sweeny, who died Sept. 25 in Temple.
The Facts compiled the list from obituaries, funeral homes and friends of the victims.
The elderly were most susceptible.
“Any time an elderly person has evacuated, or they had surgery, that might do it,” said the Rev. Jerl Watkins, who officiated at Bell’s funeral. “It was hard on healthy people.”
Greg Jeter, director of Jeter’s Funeral Home in Alvin, said he’s arranged funerals for nine Galveston County residents and three Brazoria County residents whose deaths are linked to the evacuation.
Jeter said many of the victims were in relatively good heath before the storm.
“Several of those families that came in said, ‘We can’t believe mom died,’” Jeter said. “If they hadn’t had to evacuate their homes, they’d probably be alive today.”
The Associated Press reported the death toll from Rita is about 100, most of which came during the evacuation or after the storm passed. It could be weeks before a final death toll is known, Robert Black, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, told the wire service.
By contrast more than 1,100 people were killed by Hurricane Katrina, which hit Louisiana and Mississippi last month, according to the AP.
About 2.9 million people fled inland from Rita and the storm’s eastward turn kept it from slamming into the Houston metropolitan area. The dirty side of the storm, where winds and storm surge are the highest, fell on sparsely populated areas of the Louisiana coastline.
The deadliest hurricane in U.S. history remains the 1900 storm that hit Galveston. Estimates of the death toll from that storm range from 6,000 to 12,000, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Carla killed 43 people, including 31 in Texas, when it came ashore in 1961 near Port O’Connor. In 1957, Hurricane Audrey hit about the same spot Rita did and killed 390 people, while Hurricane Camille in 1969 killed 256.
By contrast, Hurricane Andrew, which came ashore in Florida and again in Louisiana in 1992, killed 65 people.
Those numbers translate into countless stories like Terrell’s, who said people still knock on his door asking where the Petries are, he said.
As a lasting tribute, Terrell said he has lowered to half staff the miniature flagpole Terrell built for the Petries’ mailbox.
He’ll keep it that way as long as possible, he said.
“Ted was just a good buddy of mine,” Terrell said. “He’s gonna be a loss.”
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