Jamil Ahmadia, Sarah's father who is a middle school principal on the Big Island, said this afternoon that his daughter will be flown to Cyprus and will have to stay overnight there before taking a Cyprus Express Airlines flight to London, England.

"Her brother (Aron) is working on arrangements for a flight out of London," Jamil Ahmadia said.

Tonight will be the second attempt for Sarah Ahmadia to evacuate. She had hoped to be on a ship that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was using to evacuate thousands of U.S. citizens stranded in Lebanon. However, the embassy underestimated the number of evacuees by 20 percent and Ahmadia, along with her two aunts and three cousins, had to stay at the Holiday Tower hotel in a coastal city north of Beirut.

News of the original postponement frustrated and enraged Ahmadia at first, she said.

"They told us 'I'm sorry we miscalculated the number (of U.S. citizens evacuating),'" Ahmadia said. "I was hysterical. All the anger and frustration and fear I have been holding in ... just came out. It was not my best moment."

The biology teacher at Kamehameha Schools — Keeau Campus, Ahmadia and her family had traveled 15 miles from the mountain town of Sharoon to the U.S. Embassy's evacuation point in Beirut, where they sat more than two hours in the hot sun before learning they'd be left behind. The news came after they had traveled down roads and through infrastructure that had been targeted by Israeli bombs and missiles for the past week. As she drove into town, escorted by her uncle who is a sergeant in the Lebanon police department, Ahmadia said part of the capitol city looked like a layer of rubble.

"It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen in my life," she said.

With so many so many U.S. citizens looking to evacuate, embassy officials told Ahmadia her traveling party would have to find their own shelter in Lebanon until they are evacuated.

"They just left them on the street," Jamil Ahmadia said. "(U.S. officials) told them to do what they have to do."

Because Sarah Ahmadia only has her cell phone for communication, her brother Aron, who is staying in Chicago for the summer, made a hotel reservation in Lebanon for his sister and family. From there, things started looking up for the Ahmadias.

Sarah Ahmadia said she's been told the Israeli military isn't bombing the area where the U.S. citizens are being evacuated from, and so far her hotel stay has been "quiet and safe."

"It's interesting," Ahmadia said about the hotel. "At least we have beds."

Tonight's helicopter ride should take about 50 minutes. In the meantime, Ahmadia's plight and insight into the bombings has brought her national attention. She's been interviewed three times by CNN and once today by MSNBC.

"I get to be interviewed by the dude with the bow tie," Ahmadia said of MSNBC's Tucker Carlson.

Reach Brittany Yap at 535-8179 or at byap@honoluluadvertiser.com.