Buried Kids’ Father Makes Panicked 911 Call Asks Lord To “Lift this Dirt Up Off These Children”

On Monday the Lincoln County communications office released the 911-call made by the father of the two buried North Carolina kids. Chloe Jade Arwood and her cousin James Levi Caldwell were buried alive Sunday night when a pit the girl's father had been working on in their backyard collapsed on the two kids.

While on the phone with the 911-operator the buried kids' father was panicked and emotional, even stopping to pray while on the phone.

Jordan Arwood is the father of 6-year-old Chloe and the Uncle of 7-year-old James. He can be heard crying on the phone as he spoke with 911.

"Please hurry ... My children are buried under tons of dirt ... They're buried under tons of clay ... It fell on top of them," Arwood said about the kids.

The father of the two buried kids goes on to beg the 911-dispatcher for help saying. "The entire wall collapsed on them. Get a crane. Get a bulldozer. Get anything you can, please. There's no way they can breathe."

On the recording you can hear a distraught Arwood as well as the cries of people in the background. Neighbors ran to the Arwood home to try and help rescue the two buried kids. As the 911-operator tried to calm Arwood down, he began to pray.

"Lord lift this dirt up off these children ... so the children will be alive and well ... I have to get my kids. Lord, please," Arwood said.

The two kids were buried in the collapse Sunday night, their bodies were not found until Monday morning. The first responders had to tread carefully as they climbed onto and dug up the pile of dirt covering the two children. They were afraid that the 24-foot deep hole might collapse further.

According to Yahoo News the hole in Arwood's backyard was "20-feet by 20-feet with a sloped entrance leading to a 24-foot bottom."

Yahoo News spoke with Sheriff David Carpenter who said that the buried kids' father had been digging with his backhoe Sunday night before the kids fell in.  Yahoo reports the Sheriff would not say what Arwood was building in his backyard.

There have been many guesses from other media sources as to what Arwood was building in his back yard. Neighbors however told Yahoo he was building a bunker to keep his family safe.

"It's a very large hole. It would look to be something like that, but I don't know. ... We're going to find out exactly what his intentions were," Carpenter said to Yahoo.

On Monday after the bodies of the two kids were exhumed the police removed guns and marijuana from Arwood's mobile home. Arwood was convicted of a drug charge in 2004 and as a felon is not allowed to own firearms.

The police are still investigating the cause of the collapse that buried the two kids.