NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – They thought they could ride out the storm.

But the Connor sisters, who have seven children between them, realized they needed to leave a ruined New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit and make it to dry land.

They couldn’t stay in their home, which sister Misty Connor just purchased last week. So they decided to make a slow, but determined trip back home to Nashua, to stay with their mother, Sharmon Connor.

They got stuck in Atlanta; that’s when Sharmon Connor sent her son down in the family’s Nissan Ultima to retrieve the stranded sisters and their children.

It was an adventure – in all, four adults, seven children in the car – and an 18-hour trip back to New Hampshire.

“We had the kids, they’re crying, they’re aggravated, there were no car seats,” Jessica Connor told WMUR-TV on Monday. “It was a wild ride.”

An uncle who had to stay behind – there wasn’t enough room in the car – swam past dead bodies to get to safety.

The family is thankful that everyone is all right. The sisters don’t know if they’ll ever return to New Orleans, though.