In the quiet darkness of the early morning hours on July 28, 2022, Nathan Day was simply helping his son get ready for work. The stillness was broken by a sudden message from a neighbor—a plea for help to save her grandchildren.

Nathan, who lived high on a hill in Eastern Kentucky, stepped outside to see what was happening. At first, he couldn’t make sense of it. But then the sound hit him—voices screaming, desperate, calling out into the night.

There was no time to think. Nathan and his wife, Krystal, didn’t own a boat. The only option was to wade into the rising floodwaters themselves. The water was cold, black, and already over their heads, but they pressed forward. Guided only by instinct and the faint cries ahead, they fought the current and reached two mothers and five children trapped by the water.

“At 3 o’clock in the morning, I was in that water with my wife,” Nathan later recalled. “I had one child under each arm and one around my neck, carrying them back to our house. The oldest child was holding a small dog.”

It could have ended there—but Nathan’s mind turned to two of his former schoolteachers. They lived nearby, and with the water rising fast, he feared the worst.

“I kept pacing back and forth,” he said. “I knew my two former teachers were probably trapped in their homes. It was heartbreaking.”

With the help of three neighbors, Nathan set out again. They pushed through the water until they reached the first teacher, who had spent the night sitting on her kitchen counter to stay dry. The second was rescued soon after.

By daylight, the devastation was clear. Homes, cars, and entire lives had been swept away in just a few hours. But amidst the destruction, something else had risen—a wave of kindness and unity.

“I’ve seen so many people saving others. I’ve seen so many people feeding people,” Nathan said. “These folks have lost everything, but they’re still helping each other.”

In that dark, flooded morning, heroes didn’t arrive in uniforms or on rescue boats. They came barefoot in the water, carrying children, holding onto neighbors, and refusing to let the rising tide take the people they loved.