Father of the Bride - All Systems Down

Summary

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Snap Judgment: "Father of the Bride – All Systems Down"

Date: July 16, 2026
Host: Glynn Washington
Featured Storytellers: David Jones, Elizabeth Marquez
Theme: What happens when disaster cuts you off from help? How do you keep a promise when every system fails?

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Episode Overview

This episode kicks off Snap Judgment’s special “All Systems Down” series—stories of people who find themselves with no one to turn to, forced to think their way out when help simply isn't coming. The main narrative follows David Jones, a father desperate to get to his daughter Elizabeth’s wedding as Hurricane Helene devastates the region, shutting down roads, cell service, and basic infrastructure. Interwoven is a story of public works director Andrew Denham, who must keep a Washington town’s water supply running amid wildfire and blackout.

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Main Story: David Jones and the Impossible Wedding Journey

Setting the Stakes

• [00:02–02:57]
  Glynn Washington introduces the 'All Systems Down' theme and situates David’s mission: “All of them, you’re just gonna have to figure it out because this July on Snap Judgment, it’s all systems down.”
• David Jones must drive from Boiling Springs, SC, to Johnson City, TN for his eldest daughter’s wedding: “David had one job. Walk his daughter down the aisle.” (Glenn Washington, [02:34])

The Plan and the Problem

• [02:57–03:41]
  David’s reputation for lateness makes this promise extra weighty. His daughters set his call time earlier than the wedding out of precaution.
  “My daughters know me well enough to tell me the time that I need to be there ahead of what the actual time is so that I will be there on time.” (David Jones, [03:09])
• Hurricane Helene, a Category 4, is moving inland: “Now a Category 4 hurricane getting closer to landfall in Florida...I know from experience...whenever hurricanes get this far inland that they've pretty much fizzled out by then.” (David Jones, [03:43])

The Journey Begins

• [06:08–07:00]
  David leaves at dusk for what should be a two-hour drive, but quickly runs into gridlock and stranded motorists: “It took three hours to go 10 miles...no cell phone coverage. So I couldn't call and tell anybody, ‘Hey, this is the situation.’” (David Jones, [06:08])
• Despite the storm, David presses on, navigating downed trees and blackout conditions.

Blocked at Every Turn

• [10:50–16:19]
  At 2 a.m., police and troopers divert all traffic—the interstate closed, bridges down, backroads forbidden.
  • “I said, ‘Well, my daughter’s getting married at 11, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle.’ He said, ‘I appreciate your position, sir, but you can't get to Johnson City from here.’” (David Jones, [12:55])
• David contemplates options amid exhaustion and cuts to the core of why he persists:
  • “I know I can't look my daughter in the eye and say, I did everything I could to get to your wedding. If I didn't do everything I could to get there.” (David Jones, [14:35])

The Decision to Walk—Into the Unknown

• [16:19–19:30]
  He grabs a backpack, leaves his beloved car without regret, and sets out on foot—30 miles to go and only 8 hours until the wedding.
  • “At that moment, I could care less about that car...I did feel like I had the dad’s privilege to uphold. And the only way I could do that was to be there on time.” (David Jones, [15:32])

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Key Obstacles and Memorable Moments

Night Hike Through Ruin

• [19:30–32:12]
  David marches through darkness, dodges wildlife, grabs a pine branch for potential defense.
  • “So I found a branch...I’m gonna carry this for protection if I need it.” (David Jones, [19:34])
• Encounters the incident commander who now tacitly supports his mission, indirectly giving him a tip on how to circumvent roadblocks:
  • “He said, ‘I think if you can get to the bottom of the hill and get up onto the interstate, you should be able to get to Johnson City from there.’” (David Jones, [20:06])

The Worst of It: Mud, Debris, and Despair

• [24:00–32:12]
  • Struggles through mud so deep it pulls off his shoes:
    • “Shoop. I just sunk right down to my knees like quicksand. And I can't move. I'm stuck.” (David Jones, [26:38])
  • Crawls under a mountain of storm debris, terrified the bulldozer will not see him:
    • “I'm crawling in this debris pile over and under...It was painful.” (David Jones, [28:40])
• Crosses a bridge authorities deemed unstable:
  • “Their lights were on, but there was nobody in the car. So I look around and...there's nothing keeping me from going across this bridge. So I scooted right across.” (David Jones, [33:18])

Becoming a Legend

• [32:12–37:27]
  By dawn, state troopers are talking about the "Father of the Bride."
  • “Are you the one that's trying to get to his daughter's wedding?... They all said, you're determined.” (State Trooper & David Jones, [34:18])
  • Offers of rides finally get David closer, but he insists on walking as long as he can.
  • Random strangers—pickup truck drivers—give him the vital last lift:
    • “I sighed this big sigh of relief like, I'm here. Well, I made it. I got lucky.” (David Jones, [38:00])

The Arrival and the Moment

• [41:04–46:58]
  Elizabeth, unaware of the night her father endured:
  • “The first thing I did that morning was check my phone. I saw that my dad had texted me at 3:51 in the morning.” (Elizabeth Marquez, [41:04])
  • David arrives at the church—physically, emotionally drained:
    • “At that point, I just lost it...I just started crying.” (David Jones, [41:23])
  • Sisters convert the powerless church to a candlelight chapel.
• The classic “first look”—a flood of emotion:
  • “There was a tap, and I turned around and the most beautiful bride in the world was standing there right in front of me.” (David Jones, [43:04])
  • “Like, split second, he just absolutely burst into tears...He ruined my makeup.” (Elizabeth Marquez, [43:13])
  • Touching gift: a sticker for his tie, reading:
    • “‘You've always walked with me. Walk with me in this step too. Thank you for being my support and for always being there for me.’” (Elizabeth Marquez, [44:00])
• David finally walks Elizabeth down the candlelit aisle:
  • “All those envisioned scenes in my mind were coming true, all sort of crashing in all at once...This was all of that and more because of my experience getting there. It was like, oh, this is so worth it.” (David Jones, [46:26])

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “I have the dad’s privilege to uphold. And the only way I could do that was to be there on time.”
  —David Jones ([15:36])
• “Are you the one that's trying to get to his daughter's wedding?” ... “They all said, you’re determined.”
  —State Trooper & David Jones ([34:22])
• “There was a tap, and I turned around and the most beautiful bride in the world was standing there right in front of me.”
  —David Jones ([43:04])
• “He just absolutely burst into tears, like, burst into emotion…He ruined my makeup.”
  —Elizabeth Marquez ([43:13])
• “Thank you for being my support and for always being there for me.”
  —Sticker message from Elizabeth to David ([44:00])
• “It was the privilege that dads have to get to walk their daughters down the aisle. What that would be like. This was all of that and more because of my experience getting there. It was like, oh, this is so worth it.”
  —David Jones ([46:26])

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Secondary Story: Town on the Edge—Andrew Denham and the Wildfire

Crisis Situation, New Guy on the Job

• [47:45–49:09]
  Andrew Denham must keep water flowing to battle a wildfire threatening Twisp, Washington—while operating with one arm in a sling, nine months into the job.
  • “I had never operated this external power source for this well because I'm only nine months on the job.” (Andrew Denham, [49:09])
  • “My heart’s jumping out of my chest. ...If I fail at this...it's just not a place I want to be in.” (Andrew Denham, [49:39])

Last Minute Workarounds

• [50:56–53:20]
  Andrew’s backup plans fail repeatedly, finally getting an old generator working for the second well just as water may run out, cycling between pumping and cooling to keep up with furious demand.

The Aftermath

• [53:44–54:37]
  FEMA brings fresh equipment just in time. The next day, firefighters save the town with backburns.
  • “It was a miracle. ...We very easily could have lost a big part of town and we didn't.” (Andrew Denham, [53:58])

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Timestamps—Key Story Beats

• 00:02 — Series intro: “All Systems Down” explained
• 02:57 — David’s late reputation and personal stakes
• 06:08 — Storm hits, the drive begins
• 10:50 — Highway blocked, police intervention
• 14:35 — Decision to try—“I know I can't look my daughter in the eye...”
• 19:30 — Night hike, “I found a branch for protection”
• 20:06 — Trooper’s quiet advice
• 26:38 — Stuck in mud, near disaster
• 32:12 — The failed bridge, despair, “lost night of the soul”
• 34:22 — Becoming the “determined” legend among troopers
• 38:00 — Final ride brings him home
• 41:04 — Elizabeth’s first hint something’s up
• 43:04 — The wedding “first look”—tears and hug
• 46:26 — Reflecting on privilege and meaning of the journey

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Tone & Takeaways

• Emotionally charged, raw, and intimate—David’s voice is determined, loving, at times exhausted, at other times wry and self-aware.
• A story about a father’s love and perseverance, but also about adapting when all systems collapse.
• Heartfelt ending underscores that the greatest journeys are often the ones nobody sees.
• "This was all of that and more because of my experience getting there. It was like, oh, this is so worth it." (David Jones, [46:26])

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode exemplifies Snap Judgment's signature blend of narrative drive and emotional depth, taking you step-by-step through literal and metaphorical darkness. It’s a father’s test of commitment pushed to its limit—and proof that sometimes, the longest path leads straight to the heart of the story.

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Transcript

[Glenn Washington]

Snap Studios. When the system crashes, when the first responders can't respond, when you're left all alone. What do you do? For the next four weeks on Snap Judgment, we're sharing stories of people trying to think their way out of situations where no help is coming. A deep space pro, a teenage driver, a surf legend, the father of the bride. All of them. You're just gonna have to figure it out because this July on Snap Judgment, it's all systems down. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Did you know there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door? And they found a way to combine THC with carefully selected functional ingredients to create gummies, baked goods, drinks to set your mood right. I'm talking about mood.com and you can get 20% off your first [e-mail] with promo code SNAP. Forget the one size fits all supplements. Dial in what you're looking for like Mood's cherry lime soda. The perfect balance of citrus and stone fruit. With the boost of premium thc, everything ships discreetly right to your door. No dispensary lines, no awkward conversations. And best of all, not only is every Mood product backed by a 100 day satisfaction guarantee, but. But as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code SNAP. So head to mood.com, find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for and let Mood help you discover your perfect mood. And don't forget to use promo Code Snap when you check out. To save 20% on your first order, try [e-mail] what happens when every single thing falls apart? Welcome to Snap Judgment's all systems down now. You're about to meet David Jones. And David Jones has been counting the days till his daughter's wedding. All week the rain had been coming down hard, but David had a plan. Friday evening he'd drive from his home in Boiling Springs, South Carolina up to East Tennessee. Two and a half hours east. Easy peasy. The wedding Saturday morning. David just need to be at the church by 10am sharp because when those doors open. David had one job. Walk his daughter down the aisle. Snap Judgment.

[David Jones]

I'm not known for one who's always on time. It's a challenge for me and I wanted to make sure I was on time for Elizabeth's wedding. A woman's wedding days, one of the most important days of her life. And it was really important to me to honor her by being on time. Would you say you had a reputation? My daughters know me well enough to tell me the time that I need to be there ahead of what the actual time is so that I will be there on time for the way things work. So the wedding was at 11. They told me to be there at 10 for photos.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

Hi, everybody.

[Glenn Washington]

I'm live here in the weather center

[David Jones]

with another update on Hurricane Helene, Now a Category 4 hurricane getting closer to landfall in Florida. The latest advisory has the winds at 130mph, sustained gusts even higher than that, and it's moving north, northeast. I've lived in the Southeast for more than 40 years, and I know from experience that whenever hurricanes get this far inland that they've pretty much fizzled out by then. And I think that was kind of what most people were thinking is, yeah, we've had this before. No big deal.

[Glenn Washington]

And that's where we're verging on right now.

[David Jones]

So here it comes. You're next up for some of those intense winds. The real concern in my mind wasn't just the storm, but my daughter's wedding. I had been looking forward her wedding for years. I had always envisioned walking my daughters down the aisle on their wedding days. I have three daughters. Elizabeth was the oldest. She's the first to get married. I don't know why. I've just had this vision in mind for many, many decades, in fact, that this is one of the great privileges of fatherhood. And now we've got this storm bearing down on us like, okay. And it kind of meanders around here through Friday afternoon, Friday evening, some of you are asking kind of, where does it go after that kind of rains itself? Back out over Tennessee. After the storm, the cell phone coverage was spotty. Hey, Elizabeth, it's your dad. The track of the storm after it left us was to go through western North Carolina and right up through East Tennessee, where the wedding was going to be. Occasionally, I would be able to get something. Most of the time I couldn't. And I was able to text her, and she said as far as she knew, the wedding was on. The plan then was for me to head on up to our other house, which was in Johnson City. You know, with all the weather and all that stuff, you never know. But love you, sweetie. If you got any questions, holler back.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

Thanks. Bye.

[David Jones]

I Left around five or six in the evening. It's just two hours on a normal day from Boiling Springs to Johnson City, right up Interstate 26. When I started out to get to the interstate, the roads weren't very crowded. And I'm thinking, this is great. I'm gonna be there by dark. Traffic was light. And then I came over this hill and there I saw a long line of parked cars, nothing but brake lights ahead of me. And I thought, oh, no, what is this about? What's happening here? We're talking hundreds and hundreds of cars anxious, everybody anxious. It took three hours to go 10 miles. I'm thinking about the timing of everything. I'm keeping an eye on my watch to see, you know, at this rate, will I make it on time or not. And at that point, the answer was no. The added complication to this though, was no cell phone coverage. So I couldn't call and tell anybody, hey, this is the situation, this is the scenario. Because. Because there was no way to communicate with them. At any point did you wrestle with turning back and going home? The only time I thought I would go back was at the beginning. And that was, you know, if I get to an impassable situation, then I'll have to go back. As long as I'm moving forward, I still have a chance. Again, it's not that far. It's just 120 miles. I just have to keep going. At this point, it was dark, it's late. It's probably between 11 and 12 at night. I'm about 40 or 50 miles into a 124 mile trip. On a normal day, there's no way through. Part of what's going through my mind is I can't make the situation change. I have to figure out a way to change what I'm doing, find a way to get through. There were huge trees that were laying down and still blocking one of the lanes. So very careful driving around these downed trees, Each time I cleared a hurdle, it was like, okay, there's that much more behind me. What's next? What's ahead? And sure enough, when I got to exit 43, the road was blocked again. Everybody was being funneled off the interstate. So I went down the exit ramp and there were a group of state patrol cars there, all their lights flashing. And the troopers were out of their car and they were meeting. This was a little before 2 in the morning. And I walked over and sort of inserted myself into the group. And one of them turned to me and said, said, sir, can I help you? I Said, yeah, I need to get to Johnson City. He said, well, sorry, the roads are closed. You can't get there. I said, well, my daughter's getting married at 11, and I'm going to be there to walk her down the aisle. He said, I appreciate your position, sir, but you can't get to Johnson City from here. In my mind, I'm thinking, surely there's a way to get through. He says, the bridges are gone. So I said, okay, what about the back roads? He said, no, we're not letting anybody drive on the back roads. I said, okay, how about on foot? At this point, I had exceeded his tolerance. And he said, sir, the best thing for you to do is to go back to your car and wait until morning. Maybe we'll have more news by then. Maybe we'll be able to open the road by then. So I got the message. I understood. I backed away, went back to my car, reformulated a plan, and I thought, all right, I can't go forward from here. Then I'm going to have to backtrack and go back around. I looked down at the gas gauge and I thought, I don't have enough gas to make the rest of this trip. And there wasn't a gas station open where I was in East Tennessee, so there's no place to stop and get gas. So this isn't going to work. There was a volunteer there who was friends with one of the state troopers and he was just helping the the people there that were also stranded because there were a lot of cars parked there. He had a map on his cell phone and he showed me the path if I were to walk. Here's the path that will get you to Johnson City. It was two in the morning and I had to be there at 10. So I've only got about eight hours to make this all happen. I knew enough about the region to know that I was about 20 or 30 miles from Johnson City, somewhere in that range. I'm doing the math in my head. I can do it walking if there's no major difficulties along the way. But I gotta get going right now if I'm gonna make this happen. The volunteer there, he said, there's four bridges into Irwin. Three of them are washed out. One of them is still standing, but they're not letting anyone cross because they're not sure how stable it is. This is my only option. I'm not going to sit here in the car and hope that's not going to work. And I know I can't look my daughter in the Eye and say, I did everything I could to get to your wedding. If I didn't do everything I could to get there, my only option is to go. At this point, I've made up my mind. I'm walking and I'm going to leave my car here. Have a black Ford Explorer, platinum edition. I love this car. And at that moment, I could care less about that car. Did you feel like you were making up for anything? Was there like, I gotta do this to prove something or. I didn't feel like I had anything to prove. But I did feel like I had the dad's privilege to uphold. And the only way I could do that was to be there on time. I went to the back of my car and I took a quick inventory. What do I need? I've got up my backpack, open the suitcase. I grab my shaving kit. I need some underwear, change of socks. I've got a suit and shoes there. And I have to decide, do I really want to carry these? Is this really going to be possible? I got 20 or 30 miles to go. I don't know if I can do it. I've got an old suit and shoes at the house in Johnson City. I'm just gonna wear those. They'll do. So I get all this together, close up the car, lock it. Took one last look at it. I hope you're still here whenever I get back. And off I went. When I headed out, I was wearing cargo shorts and tennis shoes and a fishing shirt. And when I got out to walk, then the only thing I added to that was a ball cap and windbreaker. And I'm off to, you know, fight the elements. I turned on the cell phone light. I started down the old highway, got a couple hundred yards in, and it occurred to me that this cell phone battery might not last all night. I had it on the charger all the way, so I was at 100%. So I thought, I'm going to turn this off and see if I can walk without it. There was no moon. The moon wasn't out. There were no lights. Of course I turned it off. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I couldn't see the road. I couldn't see anything. It was pitch dark. It was also eerily quiet. There's no traffic. There was no noise at all. Once in a while, a barking dog somewhere in the distance. But that was it. So it was eerie quiet. Eerie dark. And I'm going down this road I've never been on before, trying to find my way to Irwin.

[Glenn Washington]

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[David Jones]

So I'm marching along and there Are bears in this area? Coyotes, raccoons, who knows what. So I found a branch. It was a pine branch. It was an old pine branch that had lots of sharp, pointed, smaller branches sticking out from it. And I thought, I'm gonna carry this for protection if I need it. About a mile or so in, a car was coming in my direction. It turns out it was the incident commander back at the end of the off ramp who had told me to go back to my car and spend the night there. He stopped and rolled his window down. He said, so you decided to go anyway? I said, yes, sir, I did. Not knowing if there was going to be sudden consequences here. And he said, would you like a ride back to your car? I said, no, thanks. I'm moving forward. My daughter's getting married at 11 in Johnson City, and I'm going to be there to walk her down the aisle. And he smiled. He said, okay. And then he leaned out in sort of a stage whisper, said, I think if you can get to the bottom of the hill and get up onto the interstate, you should be able to get to Johnson City from there. The interstate's closed to traffic, so you shouldn't have any problem. I thanked him and he said, good luck, and he drove off. So I kept going. Well, here I am walking to Johnson City after Hurricane Helene. The interstate, you should know by now from the news, the interstate is completely blocked. Bridges wiped out, and nothing will get through there for weeks, if not months or years. And so I was forced to park my car. And about 2 in the morning, I decided the only way I was going to get to Elizabeth's wedding was to start walking. So I'm about three to five miles in, and the road had been clear up until this point, but now there's mud and puddles and all that can't be avoided. It's completely covered the road, and my shoes are getting wet, my feet are getting wet. I started to encounter more down power lines, debris of every kind. The mud was slippery and slick, but I just have to deal with it. I just have to keep moving forward and keep the light shine down where I'm stepping so I don't step in a hole or step on a sharp branch or a live wire or something. So I'm continuing to put one foot in front of the other to keep. My daughter's getting married at 11, and I'm gonna be there to walk her down the aisle. That kept rumbling around in my mind, just kept rolling around over and over again. My daughter's getting married at 11 in Johnson City. I'm gonna be there to walk her down the aisle. I was still focused on what's next. What's the next thing I have to overcome. I mean, was there ever a thought that it might be reckless to put yourself in harm's way and potentially put your life at risk doing this? There was never a thought that I was being reckless in what I was doing. When I came across hazardous areas, I was very careful, but that possibility always existed. I didn't dwell on it. I just knew I had to keep one foot in front of the other, in front of the other as safely as I possibly could. Did you ever think about, like, what you would have to tell Elizabeth had something happen to you? Elizabeth would understand. My girls know me well enough that they would say, yeah, that's dad. He did everything he could to get here, including, you know, whatever happened. So around 3 or 3:15 in the morning, I saw some lights kind of up ahead around a bend, shining in the. The trees on the sides of the road. And I thought, all right, there's something going on up there. And as I got closer, I could hear it was heavy equipment. It was machinery. And when I came around the bend, there's a bulldozer and a backhoe clearing the road. They're working furiously back and forth, the bulldozers backing up and pushing stuff off to the side. The backhoe is spinning around, scooping up and spinning around the other side and dumping it off. They were really going at it. And it was clear to me there was no way that I could sneak through there, you know, get past these guys. So I'm waving my cell phone light at the bulldozer. Eventually got his attention, and he stopped. And I walked up to his cab, and he was startled. And I said, excuse me, I'm trying to get through here. My daughter's getting married at 11 in Johnson City. I don't want to get there so I can walk her down the aisle. He said, I don't think you can. The road's completely blocked. And I said, well, I gotta try. I said, how can I get past the backhoe over there? And he said, well, let me radio, see if I can get him to stop and let you through. Which he did. And he turned around, he said, all right, he's gonna park it and he's gonna let you scoot on by. So I did. I got about 30 or 40 yards past the backhoe, and the road was completely blocked with debris. It was like a wall of debris, six, seven, eight feet high. I mean, it was taller than me, and it went from side to side. It's trees, it's mangled branches, it's mangled parts of fences, it's farm implements and equipment, and all twisted and tangled together. So I thought, all right, I'm going to try and climb over this pile of debris. But it was completely unstable. It wouldn't hold me, and I couldn't move. Was just a mess, a tangled mess. If I can't go over it, maybe I can go around. So I walk around the end of the debris, and I step into mud, and it goes up to my ankles. And the next step, shoop. I just sunk right down to my knees like quicksand. And I can't move. I'm stuck. By now, the backhoe has started going again, scooping, spinning. And every time that light flashed by, I thought, he can't see me. Sooner or later, he's going to finish that pile he's working on, and he's going to come for this one. I'm in trouble. I've got to do something. And I'm tugging on my leg to get my leg out, and I managed to get my right leg up, but the suction of the mud pulled the shoe off. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make this trip barefoot or on one shoe. So I had to stop and reach down in there and try and find. Find my shoe and pulled it out full of mud. I'm looking for another way past this pile. There was a gap underneath it. I thought, well, maybe I can crawl through this. And I throw my shoe over to the other side. I need to free my hands to get through this debris pile. I'll get the shoe when I get there. I gotta get through this debris pile. I gotta get away from these guys. So I get down to my hands and knees. I started crawling into the debris pile. I'm in the dark. The backhoe light is sweeping through, and I'm crawling in this debris pile over and under and kind of around and bending on things. It was really shaky. I was afraid it would tumble and the whole pile would collapse. There was all kinds of rocks and debris and sticks, and it's all poking straight through. It was painful. And I crawled a little farther and found a gap and went out the other side. Now I'm past the debris, take a breath. I'm far enough away from the backhoe that I don't have to worry. I find a nice. What looks like a clear puddle, and I wash my shoe off, get all the mud out of it, put my shoe back on and continue walking. Still pitch dark, still eerily quiet. But I feel good about getting through this set of dangers. And now maybe, just maybe, the rest of the way will be clear. And everybody I met along the way, police tried to talk me out of it, state troopers, people clearing the roads. And I told them all, my daughter's walking down the aisle at 11 this morning and I'm gonna be the one walking her down.

[Glenn Washington]

The trail is long and how much longer can David keep putting one foot in front of the other? Stay tuned. Now, if you're like me, you dig giving your entertainment, your information, your knowledge through sound. You're listening to the Snap podcast right now. 11 Reader is a new award winning audio app for iOS for Android. It's built by ElevenLabs, and I had to make my way through some dense material last week, but instead of fretting, I let 11 reader read it to me when I was on the train. It turned incomprehensible text into a listenable, dare I say, delightful voice. When I stepped off the train, I knew what I was talking about. And that's not all, because Eleven Reader brings over 200,000 premium audiobooks and ebooks from top publishers, plus the ability to turn anything you bring PDFs, articles, docs into stunningly natural audio. And right now, 11 Reader has a special offer for Snap Judgment listeners. Your first two months for only $1. Download the 11 Reader app or sign up on the web today and use Promo Code Podcast at checkout to get your first two months for only $1.11 reader promo code podcast. Welcome back to snap's All Systems down the Father of the Bride episode. My name is Glenn Washington, and right before the break during the middle of the night, our father, the bride David, was last seen hiking through mud, crawling through piles of debris, barely escaping, being clobbered by a bulldozer. His daughter's wedding is set to start in just a few short hours and the clock is ticking. Snap Judgment

[David Jones]

another several hundred yards, maybe a quarter mile up the road, and sure enough, there was the on ramp. So I went up the on ramp onto the interstate. I'm thinking, all right, I'm gonna make it. And I get to where the bridge was and both lanes of the interstate, the bridges were completely washed out and it was like wartime destruction. It was completely gone. So I'm looking down over the edge. I can see some mangled concrete and wires and steel and guardrails and trees and just knowing that I can't go any Further, further. Here I have to turn around and go back. Now I'm a little frustrated that I've wasted this time going on this path. And at that point is when I started to have that lost night of the soul feeling where I'm running out of options. To me, despair comes when you run out of options. And I was getting close. It's 3:30 or 4 in the morning. So I've been up almost 24 hours now. I'm starting to feel tired. A little bit of exhaustion is creeping in. At that point, I had a slight notion to just sit down on the log and take a breath. And I thought, no, I'm. I'm running out of time. I gotta keep going. The only option I had left that I knew of was the unstable bridge that they were not letting people cross. So now my plan is to find that bridge and see if I can talk the troopers into letting me cross the bridge somehow. So I worked my way back down the interstate, back off the ramp onto the road, and sure enough, it wasn't too far. And there were two state troopers cars parked there on this side of the bridge. And my first thought was, maybe they won't notice me. So I went over to the cars and they were empty. Their lights were on, but there was nobody in the car. So I look around and there's no, you know, as far as I could tell, there's nothing keeping me from going across this bridge. So I scooted right across. All right, this is my chance. Here I go. And so I made it. And now I'm on clear roads and I'm heading into the town of Irwin. Maybe another half mile or mile in, another state trooper pulls up and he stops and rolls this window down and he says, sir, are you the one that's trying to get to his daughter's wedding? And I kind of sheepishly grinned and said, yes, sir, I am. How did you know? And he said, well, we're all talking about you. And I kind of chuckled and I said, okay, well, I hope it was good talk. And he said, yep. They all said, you're determined. I said, yes, sir. My daughter's getting married at 11 in Johnson City, and I'm going to be there to walk her down the aisle. And he sort of chuckled and he said, would you like a ride? And I said, oh, boy, would I, man, if you weren't so ugly, I'd kiss you right now. And he said, I'm going into town and I can take you that far. And it ended up being about a two mile Ride. We pulled up to the Irwin Town hall where I hopped out, thanked him and off I went. So here I am about 12 miles out. It's about 6 in the morning and I should be in Johnson City by nine and if it looks like I'm gonna be late, I'll call somebody for a ride. But at this point I want to be that guy that walked 20 miles to make sure he was at his daughter's wedding so he could walk her down the aisle. Out.

[Glenn Washington]

For now,

[David Jones]

I am starting to slow down a little bit and I'm beginning to get a little concerned about whether I'm actually going to make it. I'm doing the math in my head, cutting it pretty close here, but I have cell phone coverage. Let me call my brother and see if he can come get me now. So I call him and I get his voicemail. Chris, this is your brother Dave. I need a favor. When you get up, when you get this message, please call me right away. I don't tell anybody because they'll all be worried. But I had to park my car inside the road and I've been walking since 2:30 in the morning to try and get there and I just don't think I'm going to make it in time. And I want to be on time, so if you could come get me, that would be fantastic. Well, I never heard from him, so I just continued walking and I came across a truck. It was a white pickup truck that was pulling out from a crossroad. And he stopped and he let me by and then I hear, hey, would you like a ride? So I turned around, I said, yeah, I think I would. And he took me right to my house point, pulled into the driveway. It's about 7:30 and the sun was up now and I sighed this big sigh of relief like, I'm here. Well, I made it. I got lucky. Caught a ride outside of Unicoi and he gave me a ride the last eight nine miles on in. So I made it. I'm gonna get cleaned up. No power here. It's all very quiet in the neighborhood and we get cleaned up and get over to the wedding. I'm not done yet. But this, you know, I know now I can get to the wedding on time. It's 7:30 in the morning and the church is about a mile from here. I have an old car in the driveway, an old Explorer, old blue. And I just got to get cleaned up and dressed and get to the church on time from here. My body wants me to lay down, but I'M afraid that I'm going to fall asleep. And after going through all this, there's no way I want to show up late. So I keep myself up. I find myself. I get that out, get the shoes ready, there's the shirt I can wear. There's no hot water with no power. And I'm trying to wash and get the mud off of me and sort of wake myself up with this cold water and finish that. And I get dressed, get in the car and head over to the wedding. I'm going to get there right at 10.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

The first thing I did that morning was check my phone. I saw that my dad had texted me at 3:51 in the morning. It's okay. That confused me. Like, what did he go through? What did he experience?

[David Jones]

I park the car, I go on into the church. And the first two I see are my daughters, Ava and Susan, Elizabeth's younger sisters. And they say, oh, dad, so glad to see you. Are you okay? Is everything okay? How was the drive up? And at that point, I just lost it. I was physically and emotionally drained. I just started crying. And they're looking at their dad, who's crying, wondering what happened. And I tell them the story, and their eyes just got wide and their jaws dropped and they're listening to the whole thing and they're hugging me and holding on. But then I told everybody, please don't tell Elizabeth. I don't want to spoil her day. This is her day. Let's just hold off.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

I heard multiple times people comment to me, your dad's here. He's in the chapel. He's waiting for you. And so that stood out to me because so many people mentioned it so many times. And I didn't know if they were just so impressed that he got there on time or got there early.

[David Jones]

They called me out for Dad's first view of the bride. And I was instructed to stand with my back to the church and wait for a tap on my shoulder. And the photographer was staged to get this whole scene.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

And I placed my hand on his shoulder. And then they say, okay, now, David, you can turn around.

[David Jones]

There was a tap, and I turned around and the most beautiful bride in the world was standing there right in front of me.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

As soon as he turned around, like split second, he just absolutely burst into tears, like, burst into emotion.

[David Jones]

And she hugs me and says something to the effect of, don't make me cry, Daddy. You ruined my makeup. We're just laughing and crying. She has this bag. She hands it to me, this gift. She says, Go ahead and open it. And I open it, and inside a little box are these little pictures of me and her when she was a child.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

It's a sticker that goes inside your tie. And it had a phrasing about, you've always walked with me. Walk with me in this step two, in this journey. Thank you for being my support and for always being there for me.

[David Jones]

So I peeled the back off of it and I stuck it in my tie. We hugged again, and. And she had to go on and finish getting ready. And so I'm just hanging out, waiting for things to start. And my sister and her family come along. She comes up, gives me a hug, and she looks at me a little funny, and she said, bro, what's that in your ear? Looks like you got mud in your ear. And there was a little spot of mud that I missed in the cleanup process. And she said, where's that from? I said, oh, I'll tell you later. It's a long story. Now the power was out in Johnson City. So Elizabeth's sisters kicked into high gear, gathered up candles and the right kind of decorations to have a candlelight service. So when it came time to walk Elizabeth down the aisle, of course we're in the back kind of, you know, out of sight. I couldn't see into the church at that point until they opened the doors and we walked in. And it was just this beautiful candlelight scene. It was like a reminder of, hey, this is not only a special day, but it's under special circumstances. Then it was about time for the ceremony to start. I raised my elbow for her to take my arm. When the music started. And it was time for Elizabeth and me to walk down the aisle. All of those envisioned scenes in my mind were coming true, all sort of crashing in all at once. The lifetime I've had with Elizabeth, plus the night, you know, getting here, this is everything I expected it to be. It was the privilege that dads have to get to walk their daughters down the aisle. What that would be be like. This was all of that and more because of my experience getting there. It was like, oh, this is so worth it.

[Glenn Washington]

A big, huge thank you to David Jones and to his daughter, Elizabeth Marquez for sharing their story with the snap. Congratulations. David is a performance excellence coach and consultant for businesses and the founder and president of the Excellence Advisory. You can find the [e-mail] Original score for this piece was by Nick Marks. It was edited by Anna Sussman. The story was produced by Bo Walsh. Our next Story takes us to the central Washington town of Fwisp, population 1200, where Andrew Denham, the public works director, was driving to town hall. The northern Cascades.

[Andrew Denham]

It's a bluebird. Beautiful, sunny, hot, dry central Washington day.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

And then his phone rings. It's the police chief warning him of a windstorm just five miles west of town when wind gusts had suddenly doubled. It turns a small containable fire into a large and violent one.

[Andrew Denham]

And the smoke was so thick, some firefighters drove off the road and consequently, operations. The fire. The fire ceased, and the fire was unabated, straight down towards town very, very rapidly pushed by heavy wind gusts. So I knew that the highest priority that I would have as the public works director would be to provide water resources to the firefight. And to do that, I needed as many wells as I could operating.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

Andrew has two wells supplying water to the reservoir. But as the flames grow, the reservoir levels are dropping. The pumps are off. A tree branch had crashed into a power line. The entire town is now dark. Cut off from power. Andrew's only chance at getting well number one to start pumping water is to switch it from electricity to a diesel generator.

[Andrew Denham]

Keep in mind I had never operated this external power source for this well because I'm only nine months on the job.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

He'd also just had surgery. One of his arms is in a sling.

[Andrew Denham]

The stress of, like, I have to get this well running, and I, oh, yeah, I've got one arm and I'm trying to operate something I've never operated before.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

But somehow Andrew's able to get the diesel engine running. All he has to do now is hook it up to the pump and

[Andrew Denham]

I try to engage the diesel drive. Thinking at that point that it's going to run and I'm going to have a pump running and it locks up. It's like, it's not going to. It's not turning the well. I'm feeling the weight of every resident in town on my back because if I fail at this, like, if I can't provide water for these apparatus, it's just not a place I want to be in.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

He double checks the pump, makes sure it's decoupled from the electric motor.

[Andrew Denham]

Yep, I'm ready to go. And try to engage it again. And it's locked, it's seized. My heart's jumping out of my chest. I'm like, what's going to happen if I can't get this well operating? There was definitely a sense of urgency at that point of, you know, now we're without Power with the one remaining.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

Well, in the meantime, the evacuation order leaps to level three, mandating every resident to leave town immediately. Most leave the sprinklers on in their front yards as they leave in the reservoir. It's draining.

[Andrew Denham]

Probably only have, I'm guessing four hours before a pump needs to come on.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

Four hours before the entire firefighting operation would be out of water.

[Andrew Denham]

The clock is ticking and it's like I can't spend hours working on one. Well, if it appears like this one is not going to operate at this

[Elizabeth Marquez]

point, Andrew sees the fire coming toward town.

[Andrew Denham]

You could actually see the flames. We have large forest trees and when the fire hits that, it engulfs it and almost looks like they explode. And it's just one after another after another. I mean, it moves so fast.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

The air is thick with smoke.

[Andrew Denham]

The wind is blowing the fire directly into town. I don't have any more time. It's like I have to move to plan B and I have to move to plan B really fast.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

Andrew calls it. Well one is out. His only chance of getting well two to work is to hook it up to this one really old backup generator he had.

[Andrew Denham]

I remember feeling like, you know, this is it. This is where, you know, it's make or break.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

The town electrician meets him at well number two.

[Andrew Denham]

We never had hooked it up before. We had it wired in probably 40 minutes and then we threw the switch and crossed our fingers and hoped and prayed and it's like, please run this pump. And the pump took right off and started pumping.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

The pump whirs loudly and Andrew drives down to the reservoir. He measures the water level with the measuring tape.

[Andrew Denham]

I'm barely potentially moving up, but I'm at least maintaining I'm not losing ground on my reservoir. By that time, we were in full firefight. Dozens and dozens of apparatus in town. Fire coming directly at us, only a couple miles away. By that time, blown by heavy wind

[Elizabeth Marquez]

and the pump generator, it starts overheating.

[Andrew Denham]

It was too small of a generator to operate for more than about hours at a time. And then we'd have to let it sit for an hour or two and let it cool off.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

Andrew runs the generator for four hours at a time with a one hour rest break in between, straight until 10pm and he's able to maintain the water levels that whole time. And then that night, FEMA came with more resources. By one in the morning, Andrew had hooked up the well to a proper generator. He got about an hour of sleep that night on a couch in town Hall.

[Andrew Denham]

The Next morning, the wind died down and the fire crews back burned this hillside which literally saved the town.

[Elizabeth Marquez]

The Okanagan Complex fire burned over 12,000 acres in less than 24 hours.

[Andrew Denham]

I remember standing there, you know, I'm nine months on the job, one arm in a sling, knowing just how close we came to losing, who knows what I mean businesses, downtown, residential areas. I actually just prayed and like it was a miracle. I mean it was incredible. But we very easily could have lost a big part of town and we didn't.

[Glenn Washington]

Big thanks to Andrew Denham, who still works for the town of Twisp. Since the fire a decade ago, he and his team have replaced and renovated the town's entire water infrastructure system. That story was produced by Shayna Shealy. Good news. It is not over. Snappers Snaps All Systems Down Series continues Take a moment right now subscribe to the Snap Judgment podcast to make sure you don't miss miss a moment. KQD in San Francisco is SNAP's orbiting hall of justice. And the bigger news at long last is that SNAP is now available. Subscribe for bonus SNAP episodes Behind the scenes Look Special SNAP meetups. More snap. Snapjudgment.org on Team Snap the union representative, producers, artists, editors and engineers are members of the national association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications workers of America, AFL CIO Local 51 robots and people Cosplaying as robots Please note that no SNAP studios content may be used for training, testing or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. Stuff is brought to you by the team that would walk 100 miles just to be with you. Except that we producer mistake Mark Ristich, who would like to, he really would like to and everything, but you know, you know how it goes. And there's Nancy Lopez, Pat Mesiti, Miller, Anna Sussman, Renzo Goriot, John Facil, Sheena Sheely, Tayo Da Cott, Flo Wylie, Bo Walsh, Marissa Dodge and this is not the news. No way is this news. In fact, we just barely escaped being run over by a bulldozer, went crawling under half hands and knees through the muck and you would still still not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is BRX.