Hurricane Dorian victim, 85, survives rising waters after floating in chair for 3 days

Virginia Mosvold was in her daughter's Freeport home when the Category 5 storm hit the Bahamas earlier this month, the newspaper reported. Family members, who had scrambled onto the home's rafters in the attic, were unable to lift Mosvold to higher ground.

"We said goodbye to her a few times and told her we loved her," Mosvold's daughter, Sissel Johnson told the Sun-Sentinel. "It's by the grace of God that she survived."

Mosvold is now recovering from pneumonia and severe leg infections at a hospital in Hollywood, Florida, the newspaper reported.

Dorian's storm surge lifted Mosvold off the top of the home's kitchen counter and into the ocean water, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

“It came in like a tidal wave,” Johnson, 51, told the newspaper. “The water kept rising and rising.”

When the water began to recede, Johnson and her husband moved Mosvold into a stable chair.

George Johnson pulled siding off his home and scrawled "Help" on it. Two feet of water remained in the residence.

"We are very thankful our roof stayed on," Johnson told the Sun-Sentinel. "We had pine trees and furniture floating in and out of the house with the current."

Eventually, friends were able to lift Mosvold in her lounger and took her to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport, which was running on a generator but had no running water, the newspaper reported.

Mosvold and the Johnsons were flown to the South Florida hospital several days later.

"Her kidneys were failing. She was dehydrated. She was in and out of consciousness," Johnson told the Sun-Sentinel.

Mosvold has been recovering slowly, her daughter said. Although she lost her hearing aid during the storm, hospital staff in Hollywood gave her a special hearing device so she can communicate with them.

"Hopefully she will be able to overcome her challenges," Johnson told the Sun-Sentinel. "She's getting the best care she can get right now."