Americans Took Evacuation Into Their Own Hands

Maryland officials said yesterday that they will provide several forms of assistance, including computers and phones for contacting loved ones, cash assistance and licensed social workers.

"These folks have had a very quick disruption to their lives," Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said during an afternoon news conference on the lawn of the governor's mansion. "They're coming here with next to nothing, they need help, and we're going to provide it for them."

There are still "several hundred" U.S. citizens in southern Lebanon, where most of the combat is taking place, Harty said. Groups have been assembled there and will be moved northward by bus when it is safe.

Mandy Terc, 28, couldn't wait. Last week, the Chicago native kept checking the Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut for information about evacuations. But there were no updates, she said. So, she decided Saturday to join Silverstein and six other Americans fleeing Lebanon.

The trip from Beirut to Damascus normally cost $10. They each paid $200 and piled into a gray Mercedes taxi that sped to the border.

"We had to put our faith in our taxi driver," Terc said. "We were very nervous."

They passed an area that had been bombed only an hour earlier. "You could smell it in the air," Silverstein said. They took back roads, avoiding any possible military targets, until finally reaching the Syrian border, where hundreds of other people were trying to flee Lebanon.

"Our driver knew the people to bribe," Terc said. "We got in pretty quickly."

The first thing she did when she returned to Chicago, she said, was to eat a deep-dish pizza.

"Then I passed out and slept for 10 hours," she said.

Yesterday, she reflected on her escape.

"Now that I am here and safe, I'm disappointed that there wasn't more information from the U.S. Embassy," Terc said. "You would expect that the United States, being the world's superpower and a close ally of Israel, would be able to get its people out."