On Thursday, July 28, 17-year-old Chloe Adams woke up early in the morning to find water gushing up around her during the Kentucky flood. CNN reported that water was running from the bathroom drains and bubbling through the kitchen tiles. Her house was quickly surrounded by water. The girl told the news outlet: “There was water as far as I could see. I had a full blown panic attack.”

Chloe lives in Whitesburg, Kentucky, along with her grandfather and their dog, Sandy, whom she has had since she was a little girl. The water separated Chloe from her grandparents, who were at home a few feet away. She yelled at her to stay put until help arrived. However, there was little or no hope. Cellular service in the area was poor, and the 911 center, inundated with calls, was unresponsive. But a determined Chloe made the decision to get out safely with her dog.

She said: “The next thing I thought, we needed to swim to my uncle’s house” where the rest of her family was sheltering. “I put Sandy in the water momentarily to see if she could swim. But she couldn’t, so I picked her up and went back in, wading through waist-deep water to try and locate something she could float on to put her on.” She then began to experiment with various pieces of furniture and finally placed her dog inside a plastic drawer in her closet to keep it dry. She then placed the crate on a sofa cushion so her dog could float. “I finally had a plan that I believed … could work,” she said. “I knew the dangers of trying to swim in deep, moving water, but I felt like I had no choice.”

Chloe then began to swim in the cold water and continued to push Sandy’s cushion in front of her. She finally reached the thin roof of a storage building that was close to her and was the only structure that wasn’t submerged. She waited there with her dog for more than five hours before her cousin rescued them in a kayak. Her family, who took refuge on the second floor of her uncle’s house, took care of her and did not stop talking to her while she waited for her help to arrive. She collapsed upon reaching her grandmother’s house and was relieved that she and her dog were able to survive. She added: “My heart goes out to all the other people who lost and suffered far more than I did in this horrible devastation.”

Chloe’s father, Terry Adams, shared a post on Facebook after his daughter’s recovery. He would say, “My daughter is safe and complete tonight. He saved the dog from her by placing it in a container that floated from her and then swam with her to a neighbor’s rooftop. She waited for hours until she could be rescued. She is a hero. I love you Chloe. You are simply amazing. Thanks Larry; words are not enough. We lost everything today… everything except the most important thing.