Published October 28, 2026 03:00AM
Hank and Stacey Wills tried to evacuate their property ten miles southeast of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, on October 22, when their motorhome stalled in rising floodwaters. Heavy rain had saturated southwestern Colorado and sent rivers and streams across Archuleta County into roads and low-lying areas.
As the Rio Blanco River continued to swell, the current swept the motorhome downstream and onto its side, trapping the couple, their three dogs, and two cats for roughly 11 hours before a Colorado National Guard helicopter crew hoisted them to safety.
“As we’re going down the middle of the channel, water just kept pouring into the motorhome,” Hank said during an October 26 press conference. “There’s only so long it can do that before it starts to sink.”
During the press conference, the Willses and Archuleta County responders reconstructed the night-long ordeal and the rescue effort that followed.
A Familiar Flood Threat
The emergency began with a storm the couple believed they could handle, Hank said. A year earlier, southwestern Colorado endured historic flooding. The Wills’ property flooded then, too, but the water never reached the inside of their house. Expecting this storm to be less severe, they set out sandbags, covered structures with tarps, and moved their chickens and rabbits out of harm’s way.
Early on the afternoon of October 22, Archuleta County officials issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas along four river corridors. A sheriff’s deputy also came to the Wills property and told them to evacuate, Hank said.
The couple did not leave immediately. Hank said they were still trying to secure the property and animals, while monitoring water levels at an upstream diversion dam. Based on what they had seen during the 2025 flooding, they believed they had roughly five hours after the water peaked upstream before it reached them.
“We thought we could probably still ride this out,” Hank said.
A Flooded Road and a Failed Rescue
By late evening, floodwater had breached their sandbag barrier. The couple gathered their pets, climbed into the motorhome, and tried to evacuate.
Around 10:30 P.M., Hank drove onto a flooded road, and the engine stalled. They called for a tow truck, but authorities closed nearby bridges before it could reach rescuers said in the press conference.
Archuleta County Sheriff’s Deputy Craig Tamburelli said he arrived around 2:15 A.M. on October 23. He tossed Hank a rescue line, which Hank secured to a table leg inside the RV. Tamburelli anchored the other end on shore and called for search and rescue backup.
Within about 20 minutes, the current undercut the motorhome and tilted it toward the driver’s side, Tamburelli said.
“We started whistling and yelling, ‘Hey, this is going to go over soon,’” Hank said.
Tamburelli shouted for them to get out when the RV suddenly lurched, pulling the rescue line hard enough to rip the table loose and strike Hank and Stacey on its way out the window. Swept downstream, the motorhome tipped onto its side and crashed into the couple’s fence, about 75 yards from their house. Stacey fell through the bathroom doorway with two dogs landing on top of her, but the couple moved the animals above the rising water and huddled together on a narrow bathroom ledge.
Eleven Hours in an Overturned RV
Rescuers, meanwhile, had temporarily lost track of the motorhome, according to Tamburelli.
Tamburelli drove downstream, spotted the motorhome from the highway, and saw Hank signaling with a flashlight, but swiftwater teams could not safely reach the vehicle. Archuleta County Office of Emergency Management Deputy Director Stanley Okazaki arrived around 6 A.M. and deployed a drone equipped with thermal imaging, a light, and a microphone. Responders used the drone to relay updates and monitor Stacey for hypothermia while arranging a helicopter rescue.
During the wait, the couple realized Gomer, one of their two cats, had disappeared.
“We thought maybe he’d crawled out the window because we were so close to our home, and there was a tree within jumping distance. We couldn’t find him,” Hank said.
Roughly 30 minutes before the helicopter extraction, Hank tried to close one of the RV’s drawers, but it wouldn’t shut. He pushed again and heard a meow. Gomer had been inside the drawer the entire time.
The couple’s three dogs handled the wait surprisingly well, Hank said. They whined and wanted to go outside, but “there wasn’t much panic.”
Hoisted to Safety
A rescue technician descended to the motorhome to rig evacuation hoists. With only one harness for the dogs, the crew hauled them up one by one, then lowered the gear back down. Rescuers improvised for the cats, tucking one into a jacket and—to Gomer’s chagrin—zipping him into a backpack.
“Gomer did panic in the bag,” Hank said. “He kind of looked like a little alien trying to escape from my body, but everybody else did exceptionally well.”
All seven people and animals reached Stevens Field near Pagosa Springs safely around 1 P.M. on October 23.
The Wills family are now staying with family while assessing damage to their property. Water never entered their house, though mud and debris damaged several outbuildings. Their chickens and rabbits also survived.
After spending roughly 11 hours inside an overturned RV waiting for rescuers to find a safe way to reach them, Hank had a straightforward message for anyone facing an evacuation order.
“Know what you can get out, what you can’t get out, and limit yourself to the things that you can,” he said. “When they say go, just go.”
