Grandma Praises God for Saving Her in Deadly Flood Using Giant Red Cross
A South Carolina grandmother is giving all her praises to God after she and her grandson were saved by a giant cross after they nearly drowned in the midst of severe flooding that killed as many as 19 others throughout the state last Sunday.
Clara Gantt of Blythewood, South Carolina, told Columbia's NBC affiliate, WIS-TV, that she was driving to church last Sunday morning when she and her car were washed away by the raging flood waters.
Gantt explained that although it was dark and raining extremely hard as she prepared to leave for her church, which is located about 20 miles from her house, at around 6 a.m. on Oct. 4, she underestimated the strength of the storm.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Gantt managed to get within 2 miles of her church, Three Rivers Baptist Church in Irmo, when water on the road got deeper and swept Gantt's car away, leaving her powerless in the driver's seat.
As she felt her car float, she tried to call 911 but got no answer. She then called her family.
"By the time they got there, my car shifted and went backwards down into a field," Gantt recalled. "I said 'dear Lord, are you taking me home right now?' Immediately I flipped over to my back and it was like He said 'no, not right now.'"
wistv.com - Columbia, South CarolinaSoon after, Gantt's grandson, Travis Catchings, came and noticed that her car had drifted into a church yard at Jordan Independent Church.
"I got it [the car door] open, thank God, and got her out of the car," Catchings told the news station. "At that point we had to just sit there and wait."
Gantt explained that after she exited the car, she noticed a red cross, which she and her grandson held onto until an emergency team could rescue them.
"There was a little church right there. Where my car stopped was right beside a huge red cross," Gantt said. " I was literally, after I got out of the car, holding onto the cross. I was clinging to the cross, literally."
While clinging to the cross, Catchings took out his phone to call his wife because he believed that could have been the last opportunity he would ever have to speak with her.
"So I hopped up on top of the vehicle and I called my wife. I had her phone still with me and I had a waterproof case on it," Catchings said. "I really thought that was the last time that I was ever going to talk to her. I just told her that I loved her and that I didn't know what was going to happen."
After five hours of hanging onto the cross, rescue workers finally arrived to help rescue Gantt and her grandson.
"A guy came out to us with a boogie board and got me on it and told me to just hold on," Gantt said.
Gantt was rescued by a man named Brad Smith, but she knows that it was really Christ who saved her.
"Jesus is my Savior," Gantt said. "This story is not about me, this is about what He did to save me."
Because of the ordeal, Gantt suffered a broken ankle and hypothermia but will be OK.
Catchings was able to take a quick video of the ordeal with his phone, which Gantt posted to her Facebook page in a post that thanked God.
"Thanking God for His mercy and power," she wrote. "He put my feet on higher ground. Praising Him in the storms of life. Thanks to all who have prayed for me and Travis."
Thanking God for His mercy and power. He put my feet on higher ground. Praising Him in the storms of life. Thanks to all who have prayed for me and Travis
Posted by Clara Gantt on Sunday, October 4, 2015
