Couple Was Running Out of Space to Breathe in Hurricane Flooding. A Year Later, They Reunite with ‘Heroes’ Who Saved Them

A year ago, as floodwaters from Hurricane Helene surrounded their home in Marion, N.C., Lois Hawkins and her husband, Kenneth, faced what they thought might be their final moments together. The couple, married for 40 years, began reflecting on the best days of their life.

That’s when Lois spotted a flash of orange outside their window and realized rescue workers were nearby. Desperate, she began banging on the glass to get the attention of the swift water rescue team.

“We had decided we weren’t going to make it and we were talking to God like he was sitting there with us,” Lois tells PEOPLE. “We’re old people and we’ve lived a long time, and we decided we were ready to go.”

Lois, an 80-year-old retired nurse, and Kenneth, an 89-year-old retired engineer, had watched the waters rise for hours in Marion, roughly an hour from Asheville.

They had been advised to evacuate before Helene made landfall — initially hitting Florida on Sept. 26, 2024, and then moving across the South — but they stayed. Kenneth’s health was fragile, and their 19-year-old cat, Lulu, was unwell, leaving them worried a shelter wouldn’t accommodate her.

On the night of Sept. 26, the couple went to bed uneasy but not overly concerned. By morning, relentless rains had swollen the nearby river, the water rushing faster and faster.

“I was becoming very concerned,” says Lois. “I didn’t know what we were going to do. It seemed like in 30 minutes the water was about a foot high and coming straight at us.”

Desperate to escape, they tried every possible way out, but nothing worked. So they climbed as high as they could inside their decades-old home.

“I remembered the dresser I’d bought recently and I moved a ladder next to it and we both got into position,” Lois recalls. They placed their cat on a top shelf in a nearby closet.

Kenneth curled up on top of the dresser, pulling his legs to his chest, while Lois ascended the ladder rung by rung as the water rose. She had only two rungs left before rescue arrived.

“There was about a foot and a half from the ceiling, there was only that much air space to survive in at that point,” Kenneth says. “The water was coming in through the vents and the floor, there was sewage coming in and debris floating everywhere.”

The force of the flood had toppled their refrigerator, and furniture and clothing floated around them.

“The thing that bothered me the most was I didn’t want him to die and me watch, and I did not want to die and leave him in that position where he couldn’t get down and get help,” Lois says.

For hours, it seemed there was no escape.

“The water was getting really deep and it was getting dark and we were talking about how we would die,” Lois recalls. “We wanted to die together. We knew we were going to be gone soon — I was shivering after being in the water for so many hours. We were sure we were going to die and go to heaven.”

Then the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Swift Water Team arrived, led by Sgt. Tim Godwin.

His team had just rescued two men and were doing a final sweep when one teammate heard Lois. Spotting her at the window, they couldn’t get their boat close enough, so they jumped into the water, swam across the yard, and pried open the front door.

Lois calls Godwin’s team her “heroes.” “He said, ‘Put your arms around my neck and hold as tight as you can,’” she says.

Although the couple survived, they lost nearly everything, including their home.

Over the past year, volunteers with Baptists on Mission have rebuilt the Hawkins’ residence in the exact same spot as part of a larger reconstruction effort.

In July, Lois and Kenneth received the keys to their new home in a ceremony that also reunited them with the rescue team.

“It’s just a proud moment to see it come full circle. It gives me goosebumps. There were a lot of hugs,” Godwin says.

Kenneth agrees: “It was exceptional. My wife was hugging every one of them!”