[TheBattman]

Surely there must be some technology.....

Yeah, there probably is - but it would cost money.

My understanding is that this mine owner had been cited for over 300 violations of safety codes in the last couple of inspections, and had made little to no effort to fix the problems (I have no idea if the safety problems in the citations is related in any way to the current emergency). But obviously, the owner isn't too concerned with safety or spending money on some sort of communication technology for such an emergency...

[dusttoyou]

Be great if you had a clue on dealing with MSHA and their nit picky-ness. Even MSHA said the citations at this mine were less than average for US underground coal mines. Radio communications get sucked up by the mountain and the “carbon” coal, usually they have a wire that runs close by that will carry radio, but that likely broke with the quakes.

Most of the negative stuff you hear is from union, this is a non-union mine. Noticed that FNC seems to be having some peeing match with mine Owner, from all the “Fox ladies” that don’t have a clue that FNC has covering this story.