Principal Kathy Perry dragged herself to a 9 a.m. meeting Friday at Derry Area High School after no more than 20 minutes of sleep the night before.
That's because Perry spent the night lost in the Chestnut Ridge woods with her husband, Tom, and 5-year-old daughters, Tara and Leah.
The family became lost during a hike in an area known as High Rocks in Derry Township.
When it came time to leave, they were faced with an age-old dilemma.
Tom Perry insisted they travel in one direction; Kathy Perry said they should go the other way.
A short time later, they were lost.
"I said, 'You got us in this mess. You better get us out of this mess,' " Kathy Perry joked yesterday afternoon.
The Perrys walked and walked -- about 15 miles total -- until it got dark and they realized they wouldn't be sleeping in their own beds that night. About 8 p.m., she called Derry police on her dying cell phone and said, "You better call in the troops."
For nine hours, about 100 firemen from Westmoreland, Indiana and Allegheny counties, police and volunteers scoured the area, which is covered by heavy vegetation, deep ravines with sudden drop-offs and an assortment of bobcats, bears and snakes.
A state police helicopter with a heat-sensing device onboard was called in, but a thick tree canopy obscured any sign of the family. Fifteen all-terrain vehicles also aided the rescue attempt. Even fellow teachers and Derry Area High School students massed at the police station to join the search.
The Perrys were touched by the outpouring of volunteers.
"What a great community efforts this was," she said. "A lot of people cared about us."
Derry borough police Chief Randy Glick said because Kathy Perry works closely with police, she stored several police telephone numbers in her cell phone.
About 8 p.m. Thursday, she telephoned Derry police Sgt. James Friscarella.
Friscarella drove to the area where the Perrys' car was parked and turned on his siren so the lost family could get its bearings.
"At first, they heard the siren, then it got fainter," Glick said.
It was later determined the Perrys were walking in a direction away from the siren.
"That's not hard to understand," Glick added. "You get in ravines and sounds bounce and do funny things."
As it got dark, a heavy downpour soaked the area. The Perrys took refuge beneath a cliff. They removed their clothes to stay dry and made sure the twins weren't suffering from hypothermia.
Then they spent a restless night in the woods.
"We had to be strong for our kids," she continued. "They were not scared or panicked in any way. The kids were great. They didn't cry. They didn't even whine."
At 6:30 a.m. Friday, the Perrys resumed walking.
Derrick Bollinger, the chief of Eastern Derry Volunteer Fire Department, said that when the family emerged from the woods about 7:45 a.m., they were "tired and wet and damp" but otherwise in good shape.
"The little girls were happy," he said.
The search was suspended a little after 5 a.m., but rescuers regrouped about 90 minutes later.
"We weren't stopping," Bollinger said. "We're glad everything turned out all right."
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