CRYSTAL BEACH, Tex. (NBC NEWS) - With nothing to cling to but the thoughts of his family, a man overtaken by Hurricane Ike's storm surge was sinking fast.

He made a plea to God to send him something to keep him afloat and to find the will to continue the fight for his life.

"I was dog paddling," Michael Anderson said. "I said, 'God, give me something to hold onto or I'm going to go under.' The main thing that held me together was my family. I just said, 'I'm not giving up. With every ounce of energy, I'm going to keep going.'"

Soon after, Anderson said a floating piece of plywood hit him in the back.

That was the lifeline he needed, but his epic struggle was just beginning.

Just a few hours earlier, he was in his home on Texas' Crystal Beach, riding out Hurricane Ike even after his family evacuated.

He eventually saw the danger and decided to flee toward High Island, but he didn't make it far.

Anderson's van was swept away in the storm surge and the beach house that he stopped in along the way collapsed.

Soon, he was battling relentless waves and a sea of dangerous debris.

"There were refrigerators and beds and mattresses," he said. "Mainly, what it was a lot of wood with nails sticking up."

Over the course of several death-defying hours, Anderson floated from Gilchrest to Smith Point.

Finally, there was a glimmer of hope. A helicopter appeared overhead.

"That's when I started just about crying, thinking, 'I'm saved...it's over with,'" Anderson said.

But it wasn't. The crew on the helicopter did not see him.

Anderson spent another night out in that debris field fighting off ants, water moccasins and avoiding alligators.

He found a floating can of soda, a pear and containers that he used to collect storm water to drink.

After 36 hours, a deputy and another man helped him out of water.

It was the end of the ordeal and the chance to once again see his son Charles, his 4-month-old baby girl, Caleigh, and his wife, Dawn, who said she was with him in spirit.

"I laid on the couch and watched storm come in and I just kept thinking, 'If I can watch the storm come in, if I can just stay awake when it comes in and think about him, then he won't be alone,'" she said.

Anderson suffered scrapes from clutching trees and scars from flesh-eating bacteria, but he said he's learned the valuable lesson not to test Mother Nature.

"When a hurricane is on its way, leave! You and your family are so much more important than any possessions you have," Anderson said.

Another man, Mark Davidson, spent 14 hours in the storm surge.

He said he used his Coast Guard training to stay alive until he was rescued.