Miraculous Rescue: Elderly Couple Reunites with the Heroes Who Saved Them from Hurricane Helene’s Flooding

A year ago, Lois Hawkins, 80, and her husband, Kenneth Hawkins, 89, prepared to die as floodwaters from Hurricane Helene violently engulfed their home in Marion, N.C. The couple, who had been married for 40 years, were saying their final goodbyes and reminiscing, certain that their lives were ending. “We were sure we were going to die and go to heaven,” Lois told PEOPLE.

The retired nurse and engineer, who stayed despite evacuation orders due to Kenneth’s poor health and their sick 19-year-old cat, Lulu, watched as the relentless rain swelled the nearby river. The water rose terrifyingly fast—about a foot high in just 30 minutes—forcing them to desperately find the highest point in their decades-old house.

Kenneth curled up on top of a recently purchased dresser, while Lois climbed a ladder, rung by rung, as the water continued to surge. At the point of rescue, Kenneth recalled, only about a foot and a half of air space remained between the water and the ceiling. Sewage and debris floated around them; their refrigerator and furniture had toppled and were drifting. Lois’s greatest fear was having to watch her husband die or leaving him alone and unable to get help.

Just as they accepted their fate and were shivering after hours in the rising water, Lois glimpsed an orange shape outside their window: rescue workers. She frantically began banging on the glass to get the attention of the swift water rescue team.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Swift Water Team, led by Sgt. Tim Godwin, was conducting one final pass. One of his teammates heard Lois, and they spotted her in the window. Unable to get their boat close to the house, the team had to jump into the water and swim to the front door, which they were forced to pry open. Lois calls Godwin’s team her “heroes.”

While the couple and their cat were saved, they lost nearly everything, including their house. However, a year later, volunteers with Baptists on Mission rebuilt a new home for the Hawkins family on the exact same spot. In July, Lois and Kenneth were given the keys to their new residence in a special ceremony that also reunited them with the rescue team.

The reunion was deeply emotional. “It’s just a proud moment to see it come full circle,” Godwin said. Kenneth agreed, noting, “My wife was hugging every one of them!”