Man jumped in water to save a heavy cooler during a hurricane. It had something more important and valuable than treasures

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a North Carolina man went to extreme lengths to save something priceless—his wife’s breast milk. With floodwaters rising and power outages leaving their freezer useless, Graham Avery knew he had to act fast. The bridge connecting their home in Roaring Creek, North Carolina, had been completely washed away, cutting off access to the town. With no way to drive out, he and his brother-in-law, Josh Johnson, came up with a plan to get the milk across the raging creek. A TikTok shared by their friend Emily Singleton (@supersingleton) now with over 1 million views captured the moment the two men used ropes to pull a heavy cooler packed with breast milk and frozen food across the floodwaters.

"The day after the storm, Logan and Graham were trying to figure out how to save her breast milk and escape to her parents’ house that had a generator," Singleton told People. She said, "The bridge out of their house had become inaccessible due to extremely high water, and they had to shimmy across fallen trees to get out. This was obviously not a viable option to safely get the heavy cooler out, packed with frozen meats from their then-thawing freezer, to keep the breast milk cold." With no safe way to carry the cooler, Graham and Josh gathered all the rope they could find and pulled it across the creek. 

As Singleton explained, the floodwaters did not only help move the milk from one side to the other, but it also kept the milk cold in the absence of power. "If you are ever in this scenario without a generator...creeks and rivers and springs can keep milk cold for a few days, which is what all of our Mamaws and Papaws had to do growing up," Singleton said. The men were praised by many for their sheer resilience and courage. @dallysswillden said, "This hurts my mama heart, but makes me so proud to be an American. THIS is what it’s about. God bless y’all." @lifewithcaitie noted, "This is absolutely amazing but so, so devastating that this has to be done. I'm so sorry for what y'all are going through."

@ghost_vixenn commented, "As someone from Appalachia, this is proof of our ingenuity and GRIT." @officialduck_commander shared, "Grandpa said they used to take pint jars of milk and put in creek where had the smallest decline down and it would keep milk around 40 degrees." @astro.obsessed wrote, "This is so beautiful. I have never been more proud of our culture here." @jadenorica penned, "That's more or less how I kept cold milk for a week during hurricane. Matthew had a 20-gallon bucket in the shed filled with water. Would put an instant ice pack in it and put the milk in at night."

Singleton also shared that her family has been without electricity for 11 days. She explained, "Some areas in my county are seeing the electricity come back on, but because the roads are so destroyed, linemen are having difficulty getting to many places. They are working hard, there's just a lot to be done. The roads that have been fixed or cleared have been so by regular people—neighbors with tractors."

You can follow supersingleton (@supersingleton) on TikTok for more daily-life content.