Aug 13, 2008 7:02 pm US/Eastern
N.J. Family Desperate To Get Kids Out Of Georgia
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Russian troops drive out from Gori on Aug. 13, 2008 on the road leading to Tbilisi.
Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
A New Jersey family is desperately trying to get their two daughters out of Georgia. The girls went there to spend a peaceful summer at their grandparents' farm in the Georgian countryside.
Tea and Joseph Evans tried to comfort their 7-year-old daughter, Ashley, on the phone Wednesday.
"I know you want to come home," Tea said. "We'll get you there."
Ashley and her 3-year-old sister, Sophia, are trapped with their grandparents in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, which is now in the midst of a bloody conflict with Russia.
"If it gets worse, they're gonna get my kids too," Tea said. "That's why I want them out soon, I am begging."
The New Jersey sisters were spending the summer at their grandparents' farm in Chiatura when the bombing began. The village sits just miles away from where the heaviest attacks have taken place.
"Look, this is the United States," Joseph said. "My girls are coming home."
Mrs. Evans' brother, a former Georgian soldier, just flew into Armenia to try and get the girls out.
"He's got to make it to the border and get with a small team, hike through to the farm," Joseph said.
The Evans' have also asked Congressman Chris Smith for help.
"I've asked them, 'if necessary, [can we do] an extraction?" Smith said. "He said all ideas are on the table, but that can be riskier."
The girls can't go to Tbilisi because the only road from Chiatura into the capitol runs through Gori, a town that's been devastated by bombings.
"I will go myself too," Joseph said. "I can't stay here. What [do] I have here, to stay here?"
Joseph and Tea are desperate to get their daughters home.
"We're going to get them home," Lea said.
Ashley and Sophia were originally scheduled to come back on Aug. 28.
Their parents and the congressman are hoping the conflict ends by then, so that the girls can leave safely without getting in harm's way.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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