CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte couple is desperately trying to get home after surviving Hurricane Irma when the storm hit the Caribbean.
Marie and Daryl Hayes left for vacation before the hurricane was a big threat.
Once the hurricane warnings started, they rushed to get a flight home, but it was too late.
Flights had been canceled.
The couple said they are beyond blessed they lived to see the devastation Hurricane Irma left behind in St. Maarten while they were vacationing on the Caribbean island.
"It was like a war zone. We had never seen anything like it," Marie Day Hayes said.
The Hayeses said they followed all emergency instructions from their resort, which was built to withstand hurricane-force winds.
But it wasn't enough.
"They were assuring us we were safe, and once the hurricane started, they called us in the middle of the night, at 2 a.m., and they said, 'Get out of your unit. We don't think your unit will withstand the force of the wind and the waves coming through,’” Hayes said.
They recorded a cell phone video of the heavy rain and whipping winds as they ran to the resort's emergency evacuation room.
"It was this whistle that was the worst whistle you'd never want to hear again. It was very eerie. It was the wind coming through," Hayes said.
A U.S. military plane picked up the Hayeses and other Americans Saturday.
They are now in Puerto Rico and can't get home because of canceled flights due to the hurricane.
But they are thankful to be alive.
"We believe it was supernatural that we made it," Hayes said.
The Hayes hope to be back in Charlotte in the next few days.
They said they are not the story, but said the story is about the people who lost everything.