WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WNCN) — As the total number of those who did not survive Hurricane Helene continues to rise, there are still incredible stories of survival. That includes people from central North Carolina. Avery Paner is a public health major at Appalachian State in Boone. The 19-year-old knows that as much as she was in the wrong place at the wrong time last Friday, it's because other people were there at the right time that she's alive today. Pilot flying supply, rescue missions in western North Carolina ordered out under arrest threat Avery thought she had enough time to find a place to park her car on higher ground. But as she explained to CBS 17, that was not the case: "We were kind of trying to work fast and work safe, and we go down the main road that takes us to the top of the hill and a tree falls down right on top of my car. We move forward trying to go to the higher ground as much as possible and we are almost there, and it is in sight and my car starts sinking. "We are all just trying to get out of this car as fast as possible because the water's rising to about the window now. It's about up to my hip level. And we are trying to look for a window breaker, which I had in my glove compartment but nobody could see because the water is brown and murky and we're just getting deeper and deeper into this water. My car is filling up much quicker. "So everyone climbs into the front seat and we all, all four girls, used all our girl power, and we pushed this door open. And there's about six or seven guys across the street that come running over and to our rescue to try to push this car up through the mud to higher ground. "I firmly believed that this was going to be my last few minutes, and I was so upset that this situation happened and that there was nothing we knew at the time to get out of the situation except to push this door open. And we thankfully got the door open, we got out of the car and that wasn't even the worst of it. "We all link arms, and right when we passed the rip current, I get swiped out from underneath and I am literally submerged in this water. And I am almost a victim of the surge; I almost go off into the water, and I am very grateful that one person happened to snag me by my arm and keep me up in this water or else I'm very confident I would have drowned. "I'm so grateful I've had these strangers that noticed us in need of help and able to come physically save us as well." Avery said that she has a heart condition and although she lost all of her medication she is getting it replaced. Her therapy dog Finn was sickened by the flood waters and is now being cared for overnight by a local veterinarian.