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Boys trapped in snow heard rescuers calling

A plow operator accidentally pushed snow on top of two boys, trapping them in a snow bank north of New York City
Police, neighbors dig frantically to save boys trapped in snow 01:51

NEWBURGH, N.Y. -- Two boys trapped in a snow pile in upstate New York for several hours say they heard their friends and family calling for them but couldn't answer loudly enough.

Cousins Elijah "Papito" Martinez, 11, and Jason "J.J." Rivera, 9, were outside building a snow fort near Elijah's house on Wednesday night when a plow operator clearing a parking lot unknowingly pushed snow over them. Early Thursday, a police officer searching for them saw a shovel half buried, started to dig and then saw a small boot. Rescuers joined in, some digging with their bare hands.

The boys were conscious and suffering from exposure.

The boys said Friday that they did everything they could to break free, CBS New York station WCBS-TV reports.

"I was punching everything," said Elijah. "I was moving my shoulders, banging my head, moving everything so I could get more space."

"He had more space than me; I couldn't really move," said Jason. "If I could've sat up, I could've got my legs out, and we could've at least made more space, but there was a big block of ice on my chest, so I couldn't move."

Elijah said he tried breaking up the ice by punching it.

"It was about to fall, and he said it was going to land on his face, so I stopped punching it," Elijah said.

The boys said they tried to encourage each other while they were trapped.

"We motivated each other to not go to sleep, keep yelling, keep moving our bodies, trying to break out," said Elijah. "Cause I knew if we would've fallen asleep ...we probably wouldn't have woke up because we would be so cold, frozen probably."

Jason said a police officer saw their shovel buried in the snow and started digging.

"The cop saw our shovel got buried, he started digging twice and he hit my foot, and 'I'm like, Papito somebody hit my foot, so yell.' We kept yelling, 'Keep digging, keep digging. We're in here.' So he kept digging," Jason said.

Dramatic cell phone video showed strangers and first responders frantically digging to save the two young boys.

Newburgh police Sgt. Aaron Weaver said the boys were buried in about five feet of snow.

"But however it fell, there was, like, a dome around their heads, so there was air in there, like space for them," Weaver said.

And that's what kept them alive.

Police said there's no way the snow plow driver could have seen them, WCBS-TV reports.

Witnesses said the police who pulled them out of the snowbank got a round of applause.

One of the boys was released from the hospital with no major injuries. His cousin still remains under observation, but his mother posted on Facebook that he is doing well.

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