'I missed my parents': Group of Philly students relieved to be home after being stranded in NC
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Dozens of ninth graders from Girard College just returned home to Philadelphia after being stranded in North Carolina while on a class trip.
Action News was there for an embrace between a mother and her daughter after a long and stressful week.
"I've been on top of a mountain in North Carolina.. stranded basically," said 14-year-old Tiara Dargan.
Dargan was one of 31 Girard College freshmen who embarked on an Outward Bound Expedition to North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, well before the threat of Hurricane Helene moved in.
"It was a lot of rain during the time we were camping. We had to do a lot of lightning drills. It was constant rain and thunder," Tiara recalled. "It was a bunch of landslides and trees falling."
The students were supposed to come home last Friday but with powerful force of Helene destroying parts of Asheville, there was no way.
RELATED: Father trekked 12 hours to get to daughter's wedding after Hurricane Helene
Tiara was able to speak to her parents, only briefly, to let them know they were sheltering in place in a cabin on the mountain.
"I was scared for her being up on that mountain. The wind, nighttime raining -- how them kids, they had to be scared without their safety net, their parents," Tiara's father, Terrell Dargan, said.
As the rain stopped, crews worked to clear the path and the students made the long trip back to Girard College and back into the embrace of their families.
"I missed my parents a lot. I realize I can't live without them," Tiara said.
"I'm just so happy my baby is back home where she belongs," said Tiara's mother, Stephanie Jones.
RELATED | Hurricane Helene ranks among deadliest storms to hit US
As of Wednesday morning, 166 people are dead across six states and hundreds more are still missing.
President Joe Biden is heading to the hard-hit Carolinas on Wednesday to survey the damage as 6,300 National Guard troops race to get aid to those cut off by the storm. More than one million are still without power.
