A determined dad from South Carolina wasn’t about to let Hurricane Helene stop him from walking his daughter down the aisle, so he hitched rides and trekked over 20 kilometres on foot through debris and flooded roads to attend her wedding.
David Jones told the incredible story to local broadcaster WJHL and People magazine, recounting how what should have been a two-hour drive to his daughter’s wedding venue turned into a 13-hour odyssey.
Jones started the journey in Boiling Springs, S.C. The destination was a church in Johnson City, Tenn. — about 160 kilometres away — where his daughter Elizabeth Marquez got married on Saturday.
Photo of David Jones and his daughter Elizabeth Marquez at her wedding in Johnson City, Tenn., on Sept. 28, 2024.
Stellar Photography/Instagram
Jones got in his car Friday evening and began the drive. He was diverted multiple times on Interstate 26 due to heavy flooding from Hurricane Helene, but after about seven hours behind the wheel, he made it to the Tennessee border.
At that point, it was 2 a.m. the next day and a state trooper told Jones that he had reached the end of the road. The rest of Interstate 26 was impassible, the police officer told him, and minor roads were also blocked.
“You have to understand. My daughter’s getting married at 11:00 this morning, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle,” Jones recalls telling the trooper.
With only about 40 kilometres left in his journey, Jones decided to do the rest of the trip on foot. He parked his car at the bottom of an exit ramp and started walking.
Flood damage at a bridge across Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024 in Old Fort, N.C.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
He used his phone flashlight as the only light to guide him through heavy debris, knocked loose by the Category 4 storm. But the former marathon runner couldn’t have anticipated the extent of the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene. He told WJHL and People that he had to sometimes climb over two-metre-tall mounds of debris in total darkness.
“It was pitch black, no streetlights, no nothing. The devastation was beyond description, sections of roads washed out,” he 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.”
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Along the way, several state troopers he encountered told him to turn back. But Jones wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Flood damage is seen along Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Sept. 30, 2024 in Old Fort, N.C.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
At around 3 a.m., he came across a bulldozer and a backhoe clearing the road of hurricane debris.
“I thought I would try and go around it, and I stepped down into mud that was like quicksand and I was quickly up to my knees,” he said.
The backhoe operator didn’t see him stuck in the mud and nearly hit Jones. Thankfully, he was able to free himself, though he lost a shoe in the process, which he went back afterwards to retrieve.
“I knew I couldn’t make it without shoes,” he said.
Eventually he made it to Erwin, Tenn., where the roads were more clear and cars were able to drive.
“A state trooper pulled up alongside of me and rolled his window down and said, ‘Sir, are you the one that’s trying to get to your daughter’s wedding?’ I chuckled and said, ‘Yes, sir, I am.’” Jones recalled.
The officer offered to give him a ride to downtown Erwin, which Jones accepted, but after that, it was back to trekking on foot.
Along the way, Jones carried a red reflective stake to avoid being hit by cars.
As he continued walking to Johnson City, another car pulled up beside him that just so happened to be driven by a man Jones used to work with at Texas Instruments.
The former co-worker drove him the remaining 12 kilometres to Johnson City.
“In all, it was just shy of 27 miles — 10 miles by car and 17 by foot,” Jones said.
Jones changed into a spare suit, freshened up, and made it to St. Mary’s Church in time to walk his daughter Marquez down the aisle.
“It meant the world,” he says. “Every dad wants to walk his daughters down the aisle.”
Photo of David Jones and his daughter Elizabeth Marquez at her wedding in Johnson City, Tenn., on Sept. 28,2024.
Stellar Photography/Instagram
There was no power at the church, so the ceremony was conducted by candlelight. At the reception, Jones presented his daughter and son-in-law with the reflector he carried on his journey.
“I told the story of the 27 miles and how if there was any way, I was going to find it. Lots of tears were shed by me and others,” he says. “I said, ‘I want you to keep this reflector as a reminder to always protect each other, even in your darkest hours. That’s when it’s needed the most, as it did for me, and for you both to continue to be a reflection of God’s goodness, because you are such good people.’”
Marquez told WJHL that she was touched by her dad’s dedication.
“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,” she said.
Jones, meanwhile, said he’s no hero and just did “what any dad would do.”