NEWBURGH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Dramatic video captured the scene early Thursday, as police officers and neighbors dug to save two little boys who had been trapped for hours under a huge pile of snow in Newburgh. 
 
 The boys – cousins Jason “J.J.” Rivera, 9, Elijah “Papito” Martinez, 11 — spent Thanksgiving in the hospital after the terrifying accident, which police said could have killed them. 
 
 CBS2’s Weijia Jiang spoke with relatives Thursday night. They were still shaken by the incidents of the night before. 
 
 The boys were playing in a parking lot across from their homes in the Kenny Apartments complex on Walsh Road, when they went missing around 10 p.m. Wednesday. That was when a frantic search was launched by police and residents. 
 
 Patrol officers initially canvassed the area and interviewed several children from the neighborhood. They also called in an off-duty police dog and checked several homes. 
 
 It was during the search that officers learned that the boys had been building a snow fort in the area of the Family Health Center several yards away. They had been digging the fort out of the snow bank, when the plow truck came through and trapped them, police said. 
 
 Newburgh police Officer Brandon Rola found a shovel near the snow bank, and began digging as the others joined in. 
 
 “Fortunately, they were alive and well, and the police got a big round of applause,” he said. 
 
 But the boys’ grandfather, Ruben Martinez, said Thursday night that he had not slept or eaten since the boys went missing. 
 
 “A lot of things in my mind running now,” Martinez said. 
 
 Police said the snow plow driver who left the boys trapped could not have seen them, since they were on the other side of the mound of snow. 
 
 But the boys ended up buried to the point where they could not move their arms and legs. 
 
 “They were probably in about five feet of snow,” said Newburgh police Sgt. Aaron Weaver. “But how ever it fell, there was, like, a dome around their heads, so there was air in there, like space for them.” 
 
 Weaver, who himself was among the rescuers, said the dome of air was the only thing that saved them. They were stuck for at least four hours. 
 
 “I feel worried, because this is where I play,” said Casimir Trent, 9, who is a friend of the boys’. 
 
 It was not until around 2 a.m. that Officer Rola noticed one of the boys’ small boots as he shoveled around the mound of snow. 
 
 Takaiya Stevens’ son plays with J.J. She shot the video of the rescue and helped the boys get out. 
 
 “All I see was the feet. When I got over there, the little boy’s feet, was hanging out of the thing, and he was shaking, and his mother was like, ‘It’s all right, he’s there, he’s there. He was like, ‘Mommy, mommy,’” Stevens said. 
 
 Relatives said it was a Thanksgiving miracle that the boys survived. 
 
 Both the victims were recovering Thursday night at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. Family members said they were both in good condition. 
 
 You May Also Be Interested In These Stories ||||| GREENWICH, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A 13-year-old boy died after he and another boy were pulled from a snow bank in Washington County Tuesday evening. 
 
 The community is now grieving and trying to figure out how something as simple as building a snow fort turned into such a devastating tragedy. 
 
 At a press conference Wednesday morning, Greenwich Police Chief George Bell repeatedly commended the investigators he said dug through tons of packed snow to find 13-year-old Joshua J. Demarest, and 12-year-old Tyler J. Day. 
 
 “Day tells his dad and my officers in the emergency room last night that he heard, what he believed was, beeping sounds and the next thing you know it went black,” Chief Bell said. 
 
 Both boys live on Rock Road, where the incident occurred. Police say the boys were digging holes for forts in a snow bank in a parking lot where public works crews dump plowed snow. 
 
 Around 5 p.m., Chief Bell says Day’s sister reported him missing when he and Demarest never returned home from playing outside. Police say public works crews were out plowing snow around the same time. 
 
 Investigators searching for the children followed tracks from behind the house of the boys to a parking lot, where a State Police K-9 unit found a sled covered in snow. 
 
 The sled belonged to one of the boys. The sled was found close to where they children were trapped. 
 
 Police say over a dozen police, firefighters and other investigators dug with their hands and shovels to move hundreds of pounds of hard packed snow. 
 
 “I bet they moved seven tons of snow easily out of that pile by hand, shovels, snow rakes,” Chief Bell said. 
 
 At around 7:15 p.m., nearly four hours after, it’s believed the last DPW crew dumped snow on the bank, trapping the boys. Police say Demarest was found unresponsive, and emergency personnel immediately began to perform CPR. 
 
 Investigators found Day a few minutes later. Both boys were rushed to Saratoga Hospital, where Demarest was pronounced dead a little after 10 p.m. 
 
 Day suffered from hypothermia, but is now home recovering. 
 
 “You can actually see the little pocket in that huge bank that he survived in and it is nothing short of a miracle,” police said. 
 
 Department of Public Works Superintendent Leo Flynn says there’s no way his workers could have seen the teens. 
 
 “The guys are devastated,” said Flynn. “I mean again, they’re all firemen. They all have kids in the school and grandkids and yeah, they’re struggling with it as to be expected.” 
 
 “A true accident,” Chief Bell said. “That’s all I can tell you. A tragedy all the way around. There was no way that anybody could have seen the kids burrowed in back there.” 
 
 the photo 13-year-old Joshua Demarest's grandfather wanted to share of him today, his former teacher says he loved the outdoors and soccer pic.twitter.com/4whbVDWV92 — Lindsay Nielsen (@Lindsayon10) December 14, 2016 
 
 On Wednesday, mourners came to lay flowers in memory of Demarest. Flowers were put there by Day’s father. He says his son is physically okay, but not doing well with this horrific tragedy that killed his friend. 
 
 Superintendent of Greenwich Schools Mark Fish says he was an active boy who loved the outdoors and soccer. 
 
 “I found out he was in the French Club as well, I wouldn’t have known that but you know, pretty well rounded. Good student. Well-liked by his peers,” Fish said. 
 
 The school of course has counselors on hand to help students and staff and the superintendent says they will be there as long as they are needed. 
 
 A rose left at the snow bank in Greenwich where 13yr old Joshua Demarest was trapped yesterday and later died pic.twitter.com/o7zYKRCtsp — Lindsay Nielsen (@Lindsayon10) December 14, 2016
– A snow fort nearly became a snow tomb for two boys in Newburgh, New York, yesterday. Police say the cousins, ages 9 and 11, were playing in a parking lot across the street from their apartment complex when a snow plow buried them in a mound of snow; they were trapped there for at least four hours, reports NBC New York. A frantic search began when the boys weren't home by 10pm, and they were finally found under more than 6 feet of snow at 2am after a police officer spotted a small shovel partially sticking out of the snow mound. The boys were both conscious. They were hospitalized for exposure and are now in good condition. Police say the plow driver was on the other side of the mound and wouldn't have seen the boys. They were unable to move their arms and legs while trapped, but a dome of air helped them survive in what relatives are calling a Thanksgiving miracle, CBS reports. "All I see was the feet," says a neighbor who helped dig the boys out. "When I got over there, the little boy's feet was hanging out of the thing, and he was shaking, and his mother was like, 'It's all right, he's there, he's there. He was like, 'Mommy, mommy.'" (A woman trapped in a snowbank during last week's freak storm in Buffalo wrote farewell notes to her daughters.)