Although a week has transpired since Hurricane Helene made landfall, the death toll continues to climb. With over 200 deaths so far, rescuers are still scrambling to search for survivors. However, one man, from Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, with a penchant for surfing, ensured that no one from his community would add to the death toll. Using nothing but his surfboard, the man saved not one, but a dozen lives.

Anne McIntosh, who has lived in Indian Rocks Beach for over two decades, found herself trapped inside her rapidly flooding home. While she survived the storm, a blocked door closed off the only escape route. “The beds were floating. The couch was floating. My brother and his wife were on the counters,” recalled the elderly woman as panic started to set in.

However, just as things got from bad to worse, she heard the voice of her neighbor, Martin ‘Marty’ Thomas. “‘We’ll get you. We’ll get you.’ And it was Marty,” McIntosh told FOX13. Thomas, who fell in love with surfing as a kid, understood things were getting out of hand. The surfer sprung into action when he saw the water from the Gulf surging into the neighborhood.

Thomas then led his friends to pry open the door, helping Anne McIntosh escape. However, Marty didn’t just stop at McIntosh, her brother, and his wife, but also helped a dozen other neighbors escape the surge and head for high ground. McIntosh, who was the first person he rescued, told FOX13 that Thomas is “the angel of the city.”

The surfing enthusiast didn’t leave the pets behind, either. Martin Thomas recounted rescuing Anne McIntosh’s Great Dane. “She couldn’t lift the dog,” revealed Thomas, so he wasted no time and “threw” the dog out the window, knowing it could swim, and he was right. The dog made a B-Line of the surfboard and hopped on. Thomas succeeded thanks to decades of experience.

However, that didn’t mean the Florida resident wasn’t at risk. The flooding that followed the category-four hurricane had nothing in common with the waves that Thomas had surfed all his life. In fact, in several places the folding erased entire communities, uprooting houses from their foundation. Yet, despite the destruction, the residents of Indian Rocks Beach are already looking ahead.

A crisis that has united the community

While heroes such as Martin Thomas went the extra mile, putting their lives at risk, the entire community has shown incredible resilience in the face of catastrophe. ABC Action News caught up with Mary Wilkerson. Wilkerson and her husband own Sarah’s Seaside, a set of vacation rentals, that Hurricane Helene decimated. However, Wilkerson is ready to rebuild.

“These were all built in 1910, 1920s, 1940s so its been a labor of love… We love to restore the old cottages, so they were gorgeous inside, but they will be again. I am completely convinced,” Wilkerson told the news outlet. Besides surfing and tourism, Indian Rocks Beach is also home to the Seaside Seabird Sanctuary.

Like every other establishment, the deadliest mainland hurricane since Katrina hit the sanctuary hard. However, despite their troubles, the community pulled together to support the Sanctuary. 56-year-old resident Jill Horstmann told FOX13 that she and the neighbors are doing everything they can to help the non-profit recover.

“They’re really special to me,” said Horstmann, who hopes to see the sanctuary get their animals back. So it’s clear that while Hurricane Helene has wreaked havoc in Florida’s communities, good samaritans like surfing enthusiast Martin Thomas are shining examples of the communities’ unbroken spirit.