NEIGHBORS GET CREDIT IN RESCUE

Seconds after Ernest ``Buddy'' Cathey parked by his neighborhood pond to feed the ducks - like he does every day - his Oldsmobile rolled into the pond, pinning him under water.

He strained to keep his head above the surface, but the weight of the car on his 75-year-old body was too much.

Sitting on a bench 20 feet away, Laura Ewers and Lidia Stockmeister spotted the car rolling into the pond at the Twin Lakes Estates mobile home park off U.S. 21, about a mile south of Paramount's Carowinds.

Stockmeister ran to the park's office to get manager Don Clifford and then called 911, at 11:49 a.m.

As Clifford hurried to the scene, Ewers realized Cathey was trapped.

``My God, I can hear him! I can hear him!'' she screamed. ``He's under the water.''

Only Cathey's face was visible in the cloudy pond, poking the surface between the driver's-side tire and the front fender. His body lay trapped under the front of the car.

Water lapped at Cathey's mouth as Clifford, his neighbor, suddenly splashed into the water.

He slipped his hands around Cathey's wet, gray hair, raising his head just high enough for him to get air.

``God help me! God help me!'' Cathey mumbled.

Clifford knew Cathey well. In the 14 years Cathey has lived at Twin Lakes, the retired cabdriver had earned a reputation as a generous man. A childless widower, he spent his days driving elderly neighbors to grocery stores and sharing his scarce food with the ducks and geese.

He never asked for anything in return. But now he needed help, fast, and Clifford grabbed his two-way radio and called his maintenance workers.

Two of them soon drove a backhoe up to the edge of the water, grabbed a chain and hooked it to the back of the car. They were about to try to pull the car off him, but realized it might injure him. So they left the backhoe chained to the big blue Olds, to keep the car from sliding any further.

Just at that time, Jeff Martin was driving by the pond to visit a friend when he saw the commotion.

``I thought there was just a car in the creek until I saw this head,'' Martin said.

Clifford, by then, was getting tired, so Martin trudged into the water and took his turn propping Cathey's head.

``What's your name?'' Martin asked.

``Buddy.''

`` Well, Buddy,' `` Martin said, ``Hang tight, hang tight!' ``

By that time, Cathey had been stuck under water for nearly an hour.

About a dozen neighbors watched as the rescue workers slipped four pneumatic lift bags under the front and middle of the car to raise it.

It would be a tricky rescue, because Cathey was stuck in the mud, and his legs were trapped under different areas of the car. The bags pushed the front end up a few inches, then a few more, then a few more.

Slowly, carefully, the workers slid Cathey out and onto a stretcher.

He lifted his head up to look around, then set it back down. His face was nearly as gray as his hair.

Medics hovered over him, tearing his shirt open and examining him. Then an ambulance rushed him to a helicopter nearby, and he was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center. Officials said he wasn't seriously hurt, and he was released from CMC Wednesday evening.

``The way he was underneath there, he wouldn't have been able to hold himself up for long,'' Fort Mill Rescue Squad worker Mike Garrick said. ``He would have drown.''

The neighbors he had helped for so many years had saved his life.

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