Survivors of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina described their harrowing escapes from rising floodwaters to President Donald Trump on Friday and pleaded for help four months after the disaster.

Thomas Bright spent four hours of the roof of his home that had been in his family for 80 years and four generations. He wrote farewell notes on his cellphone to his two children and his two grandchildren as his garage and other debris floated past.

“We didn’t think we were going to make it at all,” Bright said. “We were watching houses, trailers, bodies coming by us.”

He had woken up that September morning at 5 a.m. to the sound of trees falling on the house. He began moving five vehicles from around the house to a road about one-third of a mile away, as the floodwaters began to rise.

When the water was ankle-deep inside the house, he retreated to the loft. When the water reached his and his wife’s hips, Bright made a makeshift ladder to climb onto the roof.

In the first two weeks after the flood, eight bodies were found in the surrounding neighborhood, he said.

“We’re thankful to be alive,” he said.

Trump hears about flooding, landslides in western North Carolina

Bright spoke at a lectern with the presidential seal set up on a patch of muddy gravel in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where a temporary plywood floor had been laid. A handful of residents described their ordeal to Trump, who occasionally asked them questions.

Pastor Franklin Graham, president of the charity Samaritan’s Purse, which helped each of the flood victims who spoke, said the area was home to him because he grew up eight miles away and went to high school one mile away.

“We’re here to show the president just a little bit of the damage and the problems that the people of western North Carolina are facing,” Graham said.

Trump had already noted that 104 people died in western North Carolina, 73,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed, and Asheville went two months without running water.

The backdrop to the news conference was a one-story, storm-ravaged white house that remains under repair, surrounded by steep, wooded hills. This was Kim West’s house.

‘Lost everything we had’: Kim West

West also described losing all of her belongings. The floodwaters rose above her ankles as she moved cars from next to the house to higher ground along the road. She grabbed her purse and pug dog while her husband Chris put dog food in a trash bag.

“By the time we got into the driveway it was already waist deep,” West said. “I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

They were stuck on local roads for hours because of flooding. The waters finally receded about midnight, after they began evacuating at 5 a.m.

“We just lost everything that we had,” West said. “Didn’t even have a brush for like three days.”

Pastor describes generosity of others

Pastor Ramona Nix said she had only dedicated her Eagle Rock Church a week before Helene swept in. But Nix stayed in the church building for three months, sleeping on the floor for three weeks, because the community’s needs were so great.

Volunteers arrived from Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Indiana and Oklahoma to help with the recovery. At one point, Nix asked a woman who arrived if she could do anything special for her.

“She said, ‘I don’t want to be selfish, but could I have a cup of coffee,’” Nix said. “I handed her that coffee and she stood there. Tears just poured. She said, ‘You don’t realize how important the little things are.’ It’s not the big things in life that we have, but it’s the little things.”

‘Horrific is just all I can say’: Mona Nix-Roper

The pastor’s daughter, Mona Nix-Roper, who lives in the Fairview area, said her home became like an island as floodwaters rose around it.

She was home alone because her husband was staying with a 98-year-old neighbor to make sure she was all right. When Nix-Roper went out to check the road and bridge that provide access to her home, she found them washed away.

Fire Department officials urged her the next day to evacuate because of the risk of landslides. Her 21-year-old son Nathan hiked in five miles after roads became impassable to help her leave.

“He said, ‘Mom, grab a bag, we’ve got to go,’” Nix-Roper said. “I said, ‘Son, there’s no way I can hike out of here.’ He said, ‘No, we’ve got to go.’”

As they walked out, they saw a neighbor’s body that had turned blue in the water.

“Horrific is just all I can say,” Nix-Roper said. “There were people out everywhere looking for their loved ones. And there were dead bodies. My son’s like, ‘Mom, you’re going to see things you don’t want to see.’”

Nix-Roper’s home was without power for two months, so she lived in her church’s sound room. Others had lost everything, so she said she is embarrassed to ask for help.

“We need help,” Nix-Roper said. “It’s just heartbreaking.”

Trump gave her a hug when she finished speaking.

“I’ve seen a lot of bad things, but I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said.