There are harrowing stories of survival from across our area, including Appalachian State University students who barely made it out as floodwaters overwhelmed them just across the street from campus.

Four App State roommates were trapped in sophomore Avery Paner's car as the water rose around them. Cellphone video captured the students' fear as water poured into the car.

"My car is not going," Paner yells in the video. "We need to get out!"

It was Friday mid-afternoon when there was so much rain so fast, the App State sophomore realized she needed to get her car to higher ground, and her roommates all went with her.

"We need to get this door open," Paner remembered thinking. "The car was filling in with murky, brown water so I couldn’t reach my window breaker, I couldn’t see anything, nobody could see anything."

Paner says conditions continued to worsen during the chaos.

"A tree fell down right on top of my car and we couldn’t get back that way so we were forced to move forward," Paner said. "We can’t turn around at this point so I have no choice but to keep going and my car starts sinking into the mud underneath. At this point the water level is to the door right before you open the windows, my windows weren’t coming down so we couldn’t come out through the windows." #Helene #Boone #Weather

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