B.C. students returning from Haiti

A group of British Columbia students and their chaperones are on a flight back to Canada from Haiti, hours after the Canadian military rescued them earlier Sunday.

Pat Dooley, Kootenay Lake's superintendent of schools, told CBC News the stranded group, who landed in Haiti the day of the quake on a humanitarian mission, are expected to arrive in Montreal early Monday.

From there, they are expected to catch a flight to either Castlegar or Cranbrook in B.C., but no further information was available from the government, which was handling their travel plans.

Earlier on Sunday, the Grade 12 students, teachers and volunteers from Mount Sentinel School in South Slocan, a town of about 360 people located 800 kilometres east of Vancouver, were rescued by the Canadian Forces.

The group and the Kootenay Christian Fellowship group, who had been stranded about 50 kilometres outside the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, were taken to the Canadian Embassy.

Sage Fouquette, who spoke to CBC News as she was waiting for a bus to take her to the embassy, said she owes her safety to the Haitian people.

"I'm happy to go home but I'm so sad to leave these people here," the student said. "They have nothing and I just feel like I'm abandoning them. They looked after us so much, so much. If it wasn't for them we would be lost," she said.

Fellow student Nicole Amos said it's been an incredible experience.

"These people are so beautiful and it's just the best experience of my life. At the same time, it's been the worst experience of my life," she said.

Amos said she was terrified when the earthquake struck.

"It's like all your life you put so much faith in the ground but at that moment we didn't have any faith in the ground," she said.

"Everything was just moving and we just ducked under doorways and stuff to try and find safety."

Harrowing experience

Student Margaux Tappin said despite the harrowing experience, she doesn't regret going to Haiti.

"[It's been] a roller-coaster. It's been really happy with the community members but really, really sad seeing what's happened to the community at the same time."

A school secretary suffered at least one broken rib, but no other injuries were reported in the group. The students and their seven chaperones had been sleeping outdoors on plywood and were robbed of about $10,000.

The group from South Slocan, west of Nelson, went to Haiti on a humanitarian mission. They landed just hours before the earthquake hit.

Norm Ouellet says he's anxious to be reunited with his son Blake, 17, who is part of the group.

"It's incredible. You know, they were sent down there to do some humanitarian work and they have obviously experienced more in four or five days than most of us will experience in a lifetime," he told CBC News.

The group is with 18 other Canadians, including a baby, who were also taken to the embassy.