In the wake of Hurricane Helene, one father journeyed nearly 30 miles by car and on foot to make it to his daughter's wedding on time.
David Jones, 64, couldn't have imagined what obstacles he would endure on his journey from his home in Boiling Springs, South Carolina, to Johnson City, Tennessee, for his daughter Elizabeth's wedding.
After the storms hit on Friday, Sept. 27, Jones set out for Johnson City at 7:30 p.m. While the drive normally takes two hours to complete, it turned into a 12-hour trek Jones couldn't have anticipated.
“I had no idea that the roads were as bad as they were,” he tells TODAY.com. “There was no cell service, there’s trees down everywhere, there's power lines in the road — it was just a mess.”
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
When Jones finally arrived at the interstate exit, he found that the road was barricaded by state patrol officers, who told him that bridges had been wiped away entirely.
Undeterred, Jones asked the officer if he could continue on foot.
“He was very polite but very stern,” Jones recalls of the officer who told him to return to his vehicle.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
“I said, ‘Sir, you don’t understand. My daughter is getting married at 11 o’clock, and I want be there to walk her down the aisle.’”
Jones, a two-time marathoner, decided to take his chances and brave the journey on foot: “It was my only hope.”
'A disaster zone beyond what I could describe'
Back at his car, Jones packed his backpack with underwear, socks, and a shaving kit before donning a windbreaker and heading off on foot with only his cell phone flashlight to guide the way.
“I just put one foot in front of the other and kept that mantra in my head: My daughter’s getting married at 11 and I’m going to walk her down the aisle,” he says.
All the roads in the area were washed out and covered in detritus. Around 3 a.m., Jones encountered two workers clearing debris with a backhoe and bulldozer. Now up to his knees in mud, Jones managed to dig his sneaker out of the mire in order to avoid an encounter with the unknowing backhoe driver.
“It was just a mangled mess, a disaster zone beyond what I could describe,” Jones says.
Jones backtracked through the debris-covered roads and eventually encountered yet another state trooper.
“He rolled his window down and he said, ‘Are you the one that’s trying to get to your daughter’s wedding?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir, how did you know?’” Jones recalls. “‘We’re all talking about you,’ he said.”
The trooper then offered him a ride into the nearby town of Erwin, Tennessee. From there, Jones grabbed a Gatorade and snack bar and set off again on foot, this time walking along the side of a two-lane highway.
“I had one thing to do: Get to Johnson City on time and not think about anything else.”
To alert passing cars to his presence, he waved his cellphone flashlight and a red reflector he found along the way.
Even though he was now back in an area with cell service, he decided not to alert his daughter to his pilgrimage.
“I didn't want to upset her or distract her in any way,” he says.
In another stroke of luck, a man in a passing truck offered Jones a ride. As it turned out, the driver happened to be an old coworker named Steve.
“I firmly believe that God or one of his angels woke Steve up and said, ‘David needs a ride the rest of the way home,’” Jones says.
Jones made it to the church right on time
Jones finally arrived in Johnson City at 7:30 a.m., and later that morning, the determined dad got to walk his daughter down the aisle.
According to Jones' watch, his journey spanned almost 27 miles: 10 by car and another 17 by foot.
The wedding went off without a hitch, though the ceremony was held by candlelight since the church had lost power. At the reception, Jones shared his story with his daughter, who was shocked to hear the news.
“Never in a million years would I have imagined what really happened,” she tells TODAY.com. “It was really a roller coaster of emotions. I can’t imagine how dangerous that was.”
As a wedding gift, Jones presented Elizabeth and her new husband, Daniel, with the reflector he had carried throughout his journey.
“I said, let this be a reminder to be a protector to each other, especially in your darkest hours, as it was for me,” Jones says.
To Elizabeth, the gift means “everything.”
“He’s a very special man, and he has very special love for us,” she says. “He would go to the ends of the earth for us — come hell or high water — and he did that.”
This article first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
