GEICO Adjuster Comes to the Rescue of Petey and Hyde After Katrina Pays Visit

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 19 -- Eric Ronzo didn't have a rescue operation in mind when he set out from New Hampshire recently to assess auto damage losses from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as a senior adjuster for GEICO.

But Petey and Hyde, if they could talk, would tell you they were mighty glad to see him, and they definitely would credit him with their rescue.

The pair -- Petey is a Labrador and Hyde is a Doberman -- heard Ronzo on their property after Hurricane Katrina paid a nasty visit to their neighborhood and left their home battered and partially submerged.

The home, believed to be on the National Register of Historic Places in the uptown section of New Orleans, is multi-storied, and Petey and Hyde presumably were able to stay above the floodwaters for nearly three weeks.

"You can imagine. They were very happy to see me," recalled Ronzo, "but fatigued and hungry." When Ronzo heard the dogs barking from inside, he called the residents who had been evacuated to Houston. He could hear the relief in their voices. "They told me to do whatever we had to do to get them out."

Ronzo broke open a window in order to get to the pair, and then took them to the GEICO office that had just reopened in Metairie for immediate care and further instructions from the family.

Right now Petey and Hyde are resting comfortably in a local animal hospital and awaiting a reunion with their owners, thanks to yet another GEICO associate who located the hospital and provided $300 for their immediate care.

Ronzo went back to finish the job he'd originally started and deemed that the family had losses on their three vehicles, valued at over $100,000.

That kind of loss can be restored, New Orleans residents are learning. But Petey and Hyde ... that would have been a loss that would have been irreplaceable.