NEWBURGH, N.Y. — Two boys trapped in a snow pile for about seven hours after a plow buried them could hear their worried family’s cries but couldn’t respond loudly enough to be heard, they said Friday. Police credited an air pocket with saving their lives.
The two cousins, 11-year-old Elijah Martinez and 9-year-old Jason Rivera, were building a snow fort Wednesday night across the street from Elijah’s apartment in Newburgh when a plow operator clearing a parking lot unknowingly pushed snow over them.
Buried in about 5 feet of snow, they could barely move and couldn’t breathe very well, so they could do nothing as they heard the anguished cries nearby. Jason lost his gloves. His hat flew off. They relied on each other to stay alive, they said, sharing Elijah’s face mask to try and talking to each other so they wouldn’t fall asleep.
“I felt so tired. It didn’t feel real that they were coming to get us,” Elijah said at the hospital.
About 2 a.m., a police officer spotted a shovel and a boot in the snow. He started digging, and residents, some using their bare hands, joined in the rescue. Elijah’s father punched through the ice and grabbed them out.
