In Colorado, 85 grade 5 students, feared lost to deadly flood waters, reunited with parents

A group of students and their teachers were reunited with loved ones on Saturday after being stranded at an outdoor education centre the day before.

"We have a lot of cheering parents," Briggs Gamblin, a spokesman for the Boulder Valley School District, told NBC News.

Eighty-five grade 5 students from Fireside Elementary School in Louisville, along with 14 adults, had been stuck at the Cal-Wood Education Center when floodwaters made the surrounding roads unsafe for travel.

"It was a little bit scary at time. The water was just pouring down," one student told The Weather Channel. "The water was like rushing down the dirt path like it was a river meant to be there and the roads were completely washed out."

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The centre kept worried parents updated on their kids' status through its website:

"They are having hard tacos with all of the fixings for dinner. Then for the evening program they are having a dance party. We have had contact with our Executive Director who shared that the students, teachers, and parents are doing very well," the website shared on the night before the rescue.

The stranded students, teachers and parent chaperones were eventually airlifted to safety, thanks to seven rescue helicopters — including four Blackhawks — sent by the National Guard.

They were reunited with their parents on Saturday evening.

"Last night around 5 o'clock we got a request from the National Guard for assistance," said Major Earl Brown, deputy public affairs officer for the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson.

"We're just a part of a whole team effort to help those folks out there in Boulder County," Brown added.

Some of the students proudly altered their "I went to Cal-Wood with my school" shirts to read "I survived Cal-Wood with my school."

By Sunday evening, nearly 1,000 people were waiting to be evacuated from the canyons south and west of Fort Collins, Colorado, the Coloradoan reported.