`GUARDIAN ANGELS': COUPLE SAY TEEN-AGES SAVED THEIR LIVES

Frank and Eleanor Cook of Crump say they might not be around today if it wasn't for the six "guardian angels" who saved their lives.

"We appreciated it so much," Frank said. "We don't know what we would have done if it wasn't for them."

Matt and Tonya Huffman, Nick Panagos, Tim Dameron, Heather Collier and Keisha Clardy are the people that Eleanor Crump calls her guardian angels.

These are the people who pulled the Cooks from their truck on April 6 as it filled with floodwaters.

Frank Cook said he and Eleanor, who had just been released from the hospital days before for heart problems, had been traveling April 6 on a county road near Whitewater.

It was raining and the water had come up over the road, he said. But there were no barriers or signs, he said, and he didn't think the water was very deep.

But he said he found out different when he attempted to drive through and couldn't.

"I got in a little ways and then I was stuck," Cook said. "I couldn't turn around 'cause I thought I'd go off the road. Somehow, I got on the shoulder."

He said he found out later he was actually about an inch from a ditch.

"If we had moved just a bit, the truck would have turned over," Cook said.

Eleanor Cook suffers from diabetes and has trouble walking so she was immobile. While Cook could possibly have gotten out, he said he wouldn't leave his wife.

And so the water rose inside the truck up to the Cook's waist.

That's when they saw the headlights.

"I thought maybe if they flashed my lights they would see me," Cook said. "I suppose they did but we didn't know it."

The six were traveling to Matt and Tonya Huffman's home in Crump after an evening in Cape Girardeau. That's when they saw the car stranded in the water.

Matt Huffman and Nick Panagos waded out to the truck and helped Eleanor and Frank to safety.

Meanwhile, the others contacted police on a mobile phone to tell them there were no signs up. Tonya Huffman and Heather Collier have medical training, so they checked Eleanor's vital signs.

Then they took the couple to their home, dried them off and contacted Eleanor's doctor.

The Cooks say they are forever indebted to them and are very appreciative for what they did.

"They were our six guardian angels," Eleanor said. "If not for our faith and our guardian angels, we would not have gotten out when we did."