I ran toward the river. Upon reaching the top of the bank by their vehicle I waved at two approaching cars to look at the river. They immediately understood. It took only a couple of seconds to see that the Jeep was completely flooded up to the floorboards, its roof was apparently resting on the river's bottom. The river current was moving at a jogger's pace and the icy water looked to be deep enough to be very dangerous based on the type of surface roiling going on just in front of the upside down vehicle. I remember thinking- "This looks impossible. Just let me do what I would want someone else to do if I was in there." I went into the water and to the nearest door. The water here was very dark brown and about 4' deep. Groping through the slightly bent open door I couldn't touch anything inside. I was able to bend the door open to create about a 2 foot gap. I reached deeper. I contacted what I thought was an ankle, it turned out to be Carol's wrist. I just pulled three times and I saw her face. In my younger years I was a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor. From that training I know that every second matters when someone's face is underwater. I got her head out and into the air and pulled Carol's limp body from the completely flooded passenger compartment. Her face was above water within about 2 minutes of the crash. The two people who stopped were now rushing into the water to help. Upon setting her down on the snowy bank, she lightly moaned. I was absolutely shocked. Could it be that we had just saved a life?

By now 10 or twelve people were on the scene. I could feel the electricity in the air. A young man and a woman were already trying to reach the other door. One woman on the bank was a former EMT in Babbitt and took over with Carol. Someone else knew Carol. I went back into the water to help the two trying to get to the driver's door. The young man there was quite strong and the two of us were able to bend the door completely open. We reached in and groped around. The water was so cold that we really had no sensation in our hands, so all you could do was grab for something. I caught hold of what felt like a jacket. It was the denim of John's jeans. The three of us pulled. The seatbelt was stuck. There was no way to feel anything, much less find the release. A man on the other side of the Jeep handed us a knife to cut the belt. We released John and he came right out. He was limp and by now had been underwater for probably 7-10 minutes. When we got him to the bank, Carol was already uttering a few words, in shock and in obvious pain. The ambulances had arrived and the professionals took over.

After the ambulances left I walked to the top of the hill and onto the curve where it had all started. There I saw three patches of what looked like damp pavement about 8' long and reaching from the shoulder across the centerline. This is where the tree shadows fell on the road. They weren't damp; they were 1/16" of glass ice. I think you could have fallen down just running across them because of the tilt of the road.

As everyone departed the scene, not much was said, but we all knew that something both terrible and amazing had just happened. We encountered our mortality face-to-face and we experienced the full effect of working together with the best we each have in us. I don't know anyone who was at the scene, but I love them all for living with hope. I know we were not alone out there.