Girard College students returning home after being stranded in North Carolina due to flooding

Thirty-one students from Girard College were on their way home Tuesday after they became stranded during an Outward Bound trip in North Carolina because of flooding caused by the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Outward Bound said.

The 9th-graders, along with a teacher and two resident advisers, departed Philadelphia on Sept. 23 for the North Carolina Outward Bound camp and were expected to make the return trip on Friday.

But then they got stranded while leaving the camp because of flood damage to roads.

Hurricane Helene, which peaked at Category 4 with 140 mph winds, made landfall late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region. The tropical storm remnants of the hurricane then swept through Georgia and the Carolinas with catastrophic rainfall.

The Girard College students and adults “left the Table Rock base camp Tuesday morning, reached a major road at approximately 11:30 a.m., and are currently expected to reach Morganton, N.C. via van transfer by early afternoon,” the North Carolina Outward Bound School said in a statement.

”At that point, they will transfer to a motor coach for their trip back north to Philadelphia,” the organization said.

The students and adults had access to heat, showers, ample food and water, as well as activities provided by the Outward Bound staff, and were able to speak with their families once communications were restored, the organization said.

David Hardy, president of Girard College, said in a statement Tuesday that the students and adults were expected to be back in Philadelphia early Wednesday morning.

“On behalf of the entire Girard community, I want to thank our Outward Bound School partners and the great work of the storm response team in North Carolina, who helped the children from the base camp to downtown Asheville, where the bus awaited them,” Hardy said.

“I also thank our parents and families for their patience and support while they anxiously awaited the return of the children,” Hardy said.