A North Carolina family has reunited with a cherished pet cat they thought theyd lost to the churning floodwaters as Hurricane Helene slammed the region last week.

The Collins family was rushing to evacuate their property in Burnsville on Sept. 27 when their cat, named Ricardo Blanco and often called simply Blanco, got away from them in the chaos, Nan Collins told Southern Living magazine .

They next spotted the cat on top of the familys camper, which became surrounded by water and began to float away.

The waterborne camper slammed into a neighbors house, which was also floating. The family watched in horror as the cat attempted to climb up the houses metal roof, but fell into the water below.

My heart sank, Collins told the magazine, saying she felt immense sadness at how helpless we were to help him.

Her son, Jonathan, attempted to run towards Blanco via higher ground and help him, but was blocked by fallen power lines.

Eight days later, they were cleaning up the wreckage on their property when Jonathan heard a soft meow, Nan Collins said in a video posted by Best Friends Animal Society, which set up a free mobile veterinary clinic to help animals in the aftermath of the storm.

He knew to come home, hes a survivor, she said in the video.