A Virginia Commonwealth University student on finding love during a flood: “This is the man I’m gonna marry”

August 30, 2004 is day many residents in Richmond will remember only too well. Virginia’s capital city was hit by Hurricane Gaston, nine people lost their lives in flash floods as the Category 1 hurricane left a trail of destruction in its wake.

It was a day that Justin and Jessica Walker will never forget either. They didn’t know each other before the storm hit. A chance meeting and a twist of fate saved their lives and changed them forever.

Trapped on campus in the middle of a storm

Jessica was a first year student, studying pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University. She had been working out inside the campus gym when the storm approached and was waiting for a ride home. But with the bad weather getting worse by the minute, she was left stranded.

Justin was new to the city. He had recently moved to Richmond, was also a first year student at VCU was still getting to know his way around the city.

When Justin stepped out of the campus building, Jessica recognized him from orientation a couple of weeks earlier, but they had never spoken. He too was on his way home and as his car was parked nearby, he offered her a lift.

Justin takes up the story: “I came out and I said, ‘Hey, I don’t wanna sound creepy but it’s really pouring out here, you’re welcome to come to the door’”

A wrong turn almost leads to disaster

Desperate to get back to the warmth of her home but with her ride nowhere to be seen, Jessica says she was in two minds at first. “I was like, OK, maybe he’s hitting on me”. With the rain lashing down, no sign of stopping and no sign of her ride, she accepted.

They got into Justin’s car and set off. But he took a wrong turn, swinging into Main Street close to the city’s iconic, 100-year-old railroad station.

The flood waters were rapidly rising and a large wave suddenly lapped over Justin’s car, flooding the engine and inside. Water was up to their laps and rising. Justin immediately reacted, reaching over to open the door on Jessica’s side and “shoulder-checked her out of the car”.

Jessica recalled: “Every car around us is submerged. He grabbed me, we swam up the steps of the train station. At this point we’re in a river...”

Students escape flash flood with their lives

The pair found refuge on the second floor of Main Street Station, relieved that they had escaped certain death. “There’s no doubt in my mind he saved my life that day,” says Jessica.

Jessica and Justin spent the next few hours helping others to safety inside the station. Cold, wet through and shivering, they were overjoyed to see an Amtrak train rolling down the track to take them and 40 others to safety.

“We managed to scrounge 15 dollars together and I think we split some nachos, a sandwich and one Corona,” Justin remembered.

The experience, although traumatic, had brought them together. It forged a connection. “We were inseparable ever since,“ Jessica said. “I’m one of those people who needs a sign, and I thought, Daggone, if God isn’t giving me a sign right now, I’m a fool. And I knew: This is the man I’m gonna marry.”

Justin proposes on station steps

Justin’s red Volkswagen, his pride and joy, was destroyed in the flood but at least there was a positive side: “I lost a car but gained a wife, so I think I came out on top there”. After graduating, they got engaged - Justin popping the question on the exact same station steps where they had swam to safety.

And a year later, in 2008, they married. Two decades on Justin and Jessica remain happily married with 12-year-old twins. They still have the crumpled license plate from Justin’s storm-ravaged car as a memento of how their chance meeting altered the course of their lives. “I drive by Main Street Station every day, and there’s not a day where I don’t think about it,” Jessica said.

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