It's been over a month since Hurricane Helene swept through several of the southern states and many people are still seeing the effects of the damage caused.
While Howard and Lisa Ray lost their home in North Carolina, they are giving glory to God that they are alive.
The day started off normal as Howard went to work as a lieutenant with the fire department. "The morning was pretty normal up until 9:15. I stayed out all night checking roads. I've seen water run down the road."
At 9:15, Howard says there was about six inches of water on the road before it rapidly grew. "At about 9:30, there was about three-and-a-half feet of water. It got up so quickly before you could even do anything."
He recalls not knowing what to do except pray. "I mean yelling praying."
Howard knew it was bad when he started floating down across the pond in the trailer. "When we got to where the land was on the other side, it tore the frame out from underneath our trailer and it threw me through the wall. So I went through the wall of the trailer and it opened up. I know it was all gone because God's what pushed me through it. And then it sucked Lisa down on the couch. When she was on the couch, I just reached and grabbed her and we floated probably another 400 yards down the river."
Despite wondering if they were going to drown, they knew they were in it together. "We're not going to do one person makes it, one person doesn't."
Lisa ended up cutting up her hand after jumping and grabbing the barbed wire fence as she tried to pull herself to safety. As soon as she was on land, Howard would be pulled up.
The house would be surrounded by water and the garage door had been broken so they could go inside. "I had to get her in because she was starting to shiver and that's hypothermia. We have to get her warm."
What he would find inside the garage only strengthened his belief that God was watching over them. "When I opened the door there were only two blankets inside. You can't tell me there was no such thing as God. I mean, that was all God."
A few hours later, they would be rescued and brought back across the river to a friend's house where they would spend the night.
He remembers walking back to help clean up the damage. "I know if one guy's out that makes it harder on everybody else trying to deal with all this destruction. If you really wanted to name it something, it would look like a war zone. It looked like somebody just bombed it literally. There are roads missing and mountain slides. It's just bad."
Despite the destruction, the couple say that it was God who protected them and helped them to survive floating on the couch. "It was a sectional couch that I had unhooked two weeks earlier to vacuum under it," says Lisa. "I never hooked that part back, I usually do but I didn't. So that was the only piece that came out."
Not only is the rest of the couch still missing, but there are sentimental items from family members that got swept away in the storm. "I lost my dad's Bible, that really hurt me. That's the hardest thing."
The hard moments that continue to come up, just add to the faith that continues to grow for the Rays. "It's hard going up there, but we know God has a plan. We shouldn't be alive because if you could see where we would be sitting in that trailer, it smashed. It was about 14 feet wide and where we were, it pushed together to about three feet. I'm just like, no, no, I've had a lot of people tell me and seen some comments before saying it was luck of a draw and I'm like, no, no, that's all gone. That was all Him," Howard says.
Now, a big part of their testimonies, Howard and Lisa want all the credit to go to God. "I'll definitely not take it from Him because it was all Him, we should not be alive."