NAPLES — What began as a good deed turned into a two-hour battle for survival when George Sovas found himself buried upside down under a giant mound of snow.
With his face covered with snow and most of his body immobilized, the 57-year-old Naples man had to fight off panic and find a way to breathe. He began by eating snow, blowing it with his mouth, even trying to move it with his nose.
"The only thing sticking up was my butt and my legs," Sovas told the Sun Journal of Lewiston. "I was headfirst and backwards in the snow. It was packed like concrete."
The ordeal began Tuesday afternoon when Sovas put his ladder atop a snowbank in order to clear ice from his ex-wife's roof to prevent leaks and damage.
When he tried to break off a section of ice, much of what remained on the roof came crashing down, taking Sovas with it.
"It came down like a freight train and just wiped me out. It hit me in the chest. It threw me clear over the ladder upside down. It was like doing a backflip."
Realizing he needed to keep calm and get air, he spent 10 minutes eating some of the snow and trying to blow an air hole. After a lot of squirming, he got some of the snow away from his face. About an hour and a half later, he remained immobilized but was finally able to see.
Dressed in a sweatshirt and flannel lined jeans, Sovas was getting colder by the minute. He realized that the cell phone in his pocket might represent his last hope.
"I kept digging with my fingers, trying to release half my body on the lefthand side. I knew if I did that, I might be able to force the phone out of my pocket; but you can't move. You're packed in."
Finally, he could see the phone begin to slide out.
"I kept shaking and shaking, and I kept my hand close by so that if it did fall, I could get it. Finally, when I shook it just enough, it fell into my hand. I flipped it open with my teeth and called 911."
After Cumberland County Sheriff Steve Welch arrived and shoveled Sovas out, he was taken to a Bridgton hospital as paramedics worked to warm him up. He had bruises and a neck that would stiffen up, but he was glad to be alive.
"I kept thinking, I'm a snowmobiler, I'm president of the snowmobile club. I can't die this way. I'm a survivor when it comes to things like this. You can't give up. You don't want to give up without fighting."
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