Two storm victims remembered during memorial service as caring individuals
Associated Press
ROSENBERG, Texas -- Even in the moments before his death, Jeffery Green put the welfare of others ahead of his own.
At 2 a.m. on June 9, after rising flood waters caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison forced him, his family and friends to flee their vehicle on Interstate 45 near downtown Houston, Green knocked on the doors of other stranded cars to see if anyone were trapped inside.
"Jeff was calling our other friends, making sure they were OK," said his wife, Abigail, who said they were among Jehovah's Witnesses who had been attending a district convention at the Astrodome.
She said she "never doubted" they all would make it home safely.
But the rushing waters were too strong, separating Green, his wife, her sister Freda Willis and family friend Robin Reid. Reid and Green's wife survived but Green and his sister-in-law, neither of whom could swim, drowned after a boat that had rescued the two capsized.
On Saturday, Green, 38, and his sister-in-law, 34, both Jehovah's Witnesses, were remembered at a memorial service attended by nearly 1,400 people from their congregation located in Rosenberg, just south of Houston.
They were two of at least 22 people in the Houston area who died when heavy rains from Allison flooded many parts of the city, Harris County and other parts of southeast Texas. The storm caused damage estimated at more than $2.1 billion.
During the service, Robert Simons, a Jehovah's Witnesses minister, said that while the property losses from the flooding are great, they can't compare to the value of the lives that were lost.
"Certainly no words that I can come up with are capable of expressing the depth of hurt you and other family members are feeling," Simons said to Green's wife during the service. "Time and unforseen occurrence befall us all."
After the service, Abigail Green said her faith and God have helped her stay strong but she still deeply misses her husband and sister.
"My sister was very giving, very loving. When you looked at her body, you might have thought she was frail. But what a heart," she said.
When Allison's heavy rains began the evening of June 8, Jeffery and Abigail Green, her sister and friend had left a Jehovah's Witnesses district convention at the Astrodome and on their way home when flood waters trapped them on the city's thoroughfares.
After first getting on top of their car, the four decided to try and make it to dry land. As they waded through rising water, they each held onto some battery jumper cables. But the water rose above their heads and the strong current pulled all of them under and into a nearby bayou, Abigail Green said.
She made it to tree and held on to its branches. Reid managed to get to the top of a van with 11 people on it after grabbing a shirt that someone held out as he was swept by the vehicle.
Both survivors remember the last time they saw their two companions alive, just after a police boat that had rescued the two turned over and both went under the water.
"I saw when they drowned, my two dear friends and there was nothing that I could do," said Reid, 21, who said he was about 15 feet from the police boat when it overturned.
"That same scene goes over in my head every other minute. After I learned of their death, I prayed. They wouldn't want me to ball up in a corner and wither away. They would want me to go out and preach the word. I realized they are at peace."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/945357
Yakki Da
Kent
"The only difference between God and Adolf Hitler is that God is more proficient at genocide."
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