Carla Pierce was in Lebanon vacationing with friends when the fighting between Hezbollah soldiers and the Israeli army broke out and rockets bombed the airport.
"I was like, 'Gee, we're not leaving for awhile," she said.
Pierce said she was in a safe zone about 30 miles north of Beirut, although she said one night, a nearby bridge was bombed. After two weeks of waiting, she escaped the country with hundreds of other evacuees by boat to Cyprus.
Eventually, Pierce was able to leave the region and get to Baltimore and then to Raleigh where her father, Danny Pierce, was waiting with some new rules.
"She's grounded for 20 years, except to go to school. She can't even go to Wake County," he said.
Pierce is ready to get back into action. She plans to finish her nursing degree at East Carolina University. She said the experience has her interested in joining some kind of international relief organization.
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
