After 20 hours buried under 12 feet of snow, a New Mexico couple has been rescued. The incredible story started when they were out delivering newspapers near the city of Clovis on Saturday night and were blown off the road into a ditch by the powerful winds of . Soon they were beneath several feet of snow drift.

Jimmy and Betty Anderson used their cell phones to call for help. Jimmy Anderson , where he works, that he talked regularly with Lt. Roger Dial of the Clovis Police Department. "Every hour I would call," he said."It got to where I think I was giving him hope, letting him know we were still here, we were still alive."

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They thought the snow storm wouldn't be that bad until the next day. "We have a country route and a town route," Betty Anderson . "We started on the country route and we delivered five papers before we decided it was getting bad and we should turn around and try the next day."

But by then, it was too late.

"We didn't sleep much," he said. "I was afraid I wouldn't wake up."

Rescue workers took to their tractors, bulldozers and even a military-grade all terrain vehicle, enduring hours of strong winds and sub-freezing temperatures before they were finally able to save the couple by digging through the snow, kicking in the windshield and pulling them out.

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"When we got down there, the wind was blowing like crazy," Clovis city worker Bill Kshir . "You couldn't see the hood of the vehicle you were driving."

Ty Gonser of Ray Lee Equipment drove one of his company's John Deere tractors to help with the rescue. It was Gonser who identified the blue-tinted snow that he knew signified something beneath it. "We saw their faces after we pushed the snow away and it's something I'll never forget," Gonser said in an .

The Clovis News Journal reported that Betty Anderson was hospitalized with chest pains, but Jimmy Anderson sustained no injuries despite his fears of frostbite, carbon monoxide poisoning, or worse.

Jimmy Anderson called it "an act of God" that the rescuers identified the location of the car.

Jimmy and Betty Anderson were trapped under this 12-foot snow drift for 20 hours on Saturday night into Sunday afternoon before they were finally rescued by locals and rescue workers. (Bill Kshir)