Philadelphia students stranded on North Carolina mountain due to Helene heading back to Pennsylvania
The Girard College students who were stranded on a mountain in North Carolina after they couldn't travel home due to storm damage from Hurricane Helene are now homebound, the school announced in an email Tuesday.
Girard College emailed the families of 31 ninth graders who left on Sept. 22 for a weeklong outdoor excursion in partnership with the North Carolina Outward Bound School. The students, plus three chaperones, were supposed to be back late Friday evening.
But their journey home was derailed by the damage left behind by Helene. A spokesperson for Outward Bound USA told CBS News Philadelphia on Monday that the roads leading to and from the students' base camp at Table Rock Mountain in North Carolina were impassable due to the destruction and debris caused by the storm.
Parents told CBS News Philadelphia they were wary and worried for their high schoolers. But that worry likely has since been met by the much-needed relief of knowing their children are on their way home. However, the trek back up north isn't necessarily an easy one.
Girard College said the departure home had four parts: a two-mile hike down the mountain, four-wheel drive vehicles were employed to take them further down the mountain, vans to take them even further down the mountain to Morganton, North Carolina, where the bus was waiting, and the final leg, the students would then take the bus back to Philadelphia via I-40 East and I-95 North.
The email continued saying the students and chaperones would likely be back at Girard College early Wednesday morning and requested that parents pick up their children at 8:30 a.m.