A South Carolina father made a treacherous 30-mile journey on foot through Hurricane Helene-ravaged Tennessee, risking life and limb to ensure he could walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding.
On his grueling five-and-a-half hour overnight trek — most of which was in total darkness — David Jones scrambled over mountains of gnarly flood debris, dodged heavy machinery and even got stuck in the mud up to his knees.
Miraculously, he made it to the church on time.
He initially planned to drive from his home in South Carolina to Johnson City, Tenn., a roughly two-hour drive under normal conditions. But Mother Nature had other plans, and after seven hours on the road, he was informed by a state trooper in the home stretch that Interstate 26 — and any conceivable back route to the venue — were impassable due to severe flooding.
Undeterred, Jones — a former marathon runner — steeled himself to hoof it the rest of the way, despite his phone’s flashlight being his only source of light, local outlet WJHL reported.
“It just… it’s awful,” Jones said. “And I can tell you a lot about the mud and the debris fields where I have to climb six, seven-foot-tall piles of debris of old fences and huge trees and it was just a tangled mess and dead-end roads and all kinds of things.”
While no part of the journey was a cakewalk, he recalled one particular harrowing moment where he wondered whether his luck had run out as he encountered a crew clearing roadways with heavy machinery, just as he had gotten stuck in the mud.
Helene’s Path of Destruction
- Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend coastline Thursday night as a category 2 hurricane, pounding the state with 155 mph gusts and killing at least 13.
- Helene moved northeast into Georgia, where it was downgraded to a tropical storm by Friday morning, but winds and floods left 25 dead in the state.
- By Friday afternoon Helene had moved over parts of Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, where at least 29 died.
- Relentless rain drenched Appalachia Friday night, sending floodwaters and mudslides crashing through mountain towns.
- In North Carolina, at least 35 people died in the Asheville area, and a tornado injured 15 in Rocky Mount.
- Over the weekend, rescuers struggled to clear roads and recover bodies. The death toll is 132 and counting, and as many as 600 remain missing.
Given that it was completely dark and the operator had no idea he was there, he was almost smacked by the swinging arm of a backhoe, repeatedly ducking down to escape being brained as he became stuck deeper and deeper in unyielding mud.
“I was up to my knees in mud and couldn’t move,” Jones told the outlet. “And he doesn’t see me. Of course, his cab is facing the other way. Most of the time, he’s swinging this thing around, and I’m ducking. Really, I’m thinking this could be it. There was a lot of prayer at that point.”
Somehow Jones managed to free himself from the sludgy prison which very nearly became his tomb, losing a shoe in the process which he later had to retrieve before continuing his voyage.
In a desperate attempt to remain visible to cars streaming by once clear of the flood zone, Jones grabbed a reflective stake, which he later gifted to his daughter, Elizabeth, and her new husband to commemorate his precarious and unconventional route to the wedding.
“I brought the reflector to the reception, and I presented it to Elizabeth, my daughter, and Daniel just for them to remember, to be a protector and a good reflection of each other and a reflection of God,” said Jones, becoming emotional.
Elizabeth said she had no idea what her father had put himself through until after the ceremony.
“That’s so emotionally moving [to know] that my dad loves me that much, that he’ll come and go through all of that to get to my wedding and be there on time,” Elizabeth Marquez told the outlet.
Although Jones resisted being labeled a hero, claiming he only did “what any dad would do,” Elizabeth said he’s a hero to her, and that she’s “so thankful he made it.”
