A U.S. man walked nearly 50km to make it to his daughter’s wedding and walk her down the aisle after Hurricane Helene destroyed roads.

David Jones’ travelled from South Carolina to Tennessee, which would typically only be a two-hour drive.

Instead, Jones had to drive seven hours and then continue the journey on foot for another five and a half hours.

Hurricane Helene had rendered many of the major interstate roads impassable.

Jones told Tennessee new station WJHL that a state trooper had stopped him, telling him that he could not go any further cause the roads were so damaged.

“You have to understand – my daughter’s getting married at 11 this morning, and I’m going to walk her down the aisle,” Jones recalled telling the trooper.

Having prior experience running marathons, Jones estimated that his location was about 30 miles (48km) away from the wedding venue, deciding then that he would walk the rest of the way there only using his phone as a flashlight.

Jones recounted climbing and crawling over debris and trees felled by Helene’s path of destruction.

He even became trapped in knee-deep mud and was almost run over by a backhoe that was clearing the roadway.

To ensure he was visible to drivers, he picked up a reflective stake, which he later gave to his daughter, Elizabeth Marquez.

Jones made it on time to walk his daughter down the aisle.

“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,” Jones said.

“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 told WJHL.

Jones said he only did “what any dad would do,” but Elizabeth said he was a hero and that she was “so thankful he made it.”