PENSACOLA, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) – Helene was horrific in Pensacola, leaving the Yancey County community both scarred and scared.
Yet somehow, they summon strength.
“I just want people to understand that you can’t give up, you’ve got to push no matter what,” Howard Ray told Queen City News.
A local church that withstood the floodwater is an image of enduring faith there.
Grandfather Mountain announces reopening weeks following Helene
Meanwhile, Howard and his wife Lisa have a story symbolizing Pensacola’s resilience.
“I don’t understand, we shouldn’t be alive, there’s no way, it’s all God,” Howard says, still shocked they made it.
“Where our house was,” Lisa says, narrating a short clip of video on her phone that shows the now barren property.
“Way past down there,” she said, referring to the home hundreds of feet away from where it once was.
The flooding swamped their trailer swiftly and violently.
“I just knew we were dead,” says Lisa, describing what she calls an act of God that gave the Rays a chance to escape.