COVINGTON — St. Charles Catholic High School seniors expected to have a fun, faith-filled senior retreat, but never expected to grow closer as the result of surviving a disaster together.

On Thursday, 73 volunteer seniors and nine chaperones left school to attend an overnight retreat at the Camp Abby Retreat Center in Covington. School officials said they have been attending overnight retreats for 32 years.

The school said the purpose of the senior retreat is to spiritually prepare the students for graduation and living out their Catholic faith after high school.

Students were supposed to return to LaPlace Friday afternoon. Because of the rising floodwater, students evacuated earlier with the help of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office Marine Division.

Student body president Madeleine Murphy said the senior retreat was going well until the water started rising.

“We were all in the middle of the meeting room, and there was a group of us who were praying the Rosary,” she said. “The electricity had been shut off as a safety precaution. We set up tables to sit on top of and waited until the military trucks came for us. We all started singing “Hold Us Together” by Matt Maher. In that moment, we were able to distract ourselves from the flood, and there was a sense of unity throughout the room.”

The 17-year-old said she had never been in a situation like this, adding it was a surreal feeling. Murphy said she was a little nervous but mostly calm because she fully trusted her teachers and knew everything was going to be OK.

“For the most part, we were all fine,” she said. “There were a couple of people who were quite alarmed; however, the rest of us were quick to help them calm down. We all realized the seriousness of the situation, so we were just focused on helping one another get through it.”

John Campbell, senior class president, said SCC teachers worked hard to make sure everyone was safe by calling roll often and assuring the students everything would work out and to trust God will take care of them.

“The most memorable part was watching our class work together,” Campbell said. “Senior retreat is all about growing together as a class. This experience allowed our class to work together and encourage each other while we waited for help.”

Campbell believes there are numerous people that should be thanked for getting the students to safety.

“I would like to thank St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office and St. John the Baptist Sheriff’s Office for aiding us in our evacuation,” he said. “I would also like to give Ms. Raleigh Benoit, Mrs. Melanie Lohfink, Mrs. Carly Flynn and Mr. Doug Triche a huge thank you for working so hard to ensure our safety and remaining calm during the experience. It really showed how much they cared about their students, and they set examples for us on how to behave and react in emergencies.”