Good Samaritans reunite with family rescued from Texas floodwaters

Phillip and Emily Ocheltree's two children were rescued by strangers.

ByABC News
May 2, 2017, 9:14 AM

— -- Phillip and Emily Ocheltree, the parents of two children pulled from a submerged truck by good Samaritans during flooding in Texas, described the rescue as “mind boggling” said the family had “guardian angels” with them that day.

The Ocheltrees were driving near Myrtle Springs on Saturday, not far from an area just hit by deadly tornadoes. Their car flipped over in flood waters, leaving their infant son, Marshall, and toddler-age daughter, Addyson, trapped inside.

“I’m banging on the roof just yelling, screaming, ‘Please get my kids out of the back of this truck,’” recalled Emily Ocheltree.

Her husband recalled hearing from inside the car, “Voices talking to us and they were telling us they were doing everything they could.”

“How everybody came together to get the doors open and to get the children out, it’s mind boggling that they were able to do that for us,” he said.

Two of the good Samaritans who stopped on the side of the road to help were Tom Mitchell and Korry Prox.

“Words can’t explain,” Prox said of the rescue. “It’s just blessed to be a blessing to someone else.”

Video shot on Mitchell’s cellphone shows Prox and the other rescuers struggling against the current of water to open the vehicle's doors and rescue the people inside. The video, provided to ABC affiliate WFAA-TV, now has more than 16 million views.

When one of the rescuers rushed from the vehicle carrying an unresponsive infant, Mitchell started CPR on the baby.

When Mitchell embraced the Ocheltrees for the first time after the rescue, he told them, “I’m glad I was there.”

“I don’t feel like a hero now,” Mitchell said. “I just felt like I was able to help some people out.”

The Ocheltrees’ son, Marshall, was treated at a local hospital and released. Their daughter, Addyson, is recovering at Children’s Medical Center Dallas.

“She’s laughing. She’s high-fiving,” Phillip Ocheltree said.

ABC News' Michael Edison Hayden contributed to this report.

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