Posted on 05/27/2026 11:04:31 AM PDT by CFW
After a week of squeezing through the dangerous, mazelike cave network, divers Mikko Paasi and Norrased Palasing emerged from its muddy waters Wednesday to find a cause for hope.
There, huddled on a rock, their headtorches still illuminated, were five villagers who had been trapped, missing — unknown if alive or dead — for eight days inside the flooded caves in Laos.
“What a feeling!!!” wrote Paasi, who also played a role in the famous rescue of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach from a Thai cave in 2018. “The task so far has been far from easy and everybody involved has done amazing work.”
Finding the villagers provided only a “brief relief,” Paasi said on social media, with the five villagers yet to be extracted from the cave, and two others still missing.
The survivors “are still in the terminal chamber, all healthy and in good spirits, but the extraction is still ahead and it ain’t going to be easy,” Paasi wrote on Instagram. “We need to dive straight back and bring the miners more supplies to gain strength and get ready for the way out.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
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Why go in to begin with?
You can live a long time without food. We know they had water.
I have a suggestion. Stop going into caves when floodwaters are rising.
Why go in to begin with?
Well, some people enjoy the challenge and the wonders to be discovered. The stalactites and stalagmites are amazing to see as they are formed over hundreds of years.
My family used to go caving when my boys were in their teens. They dragged me along and I actually started enjoying it. (Rock climbing as well). But, we always checked the weather forecast for the area and watched for the possibility of flash floods. It can be scary.
Of course, this group was looking for gold deposits.
“Authorities said they had previously warned people in the central Xaisomboun province, north of the capital, Vientiane, not to go into the caves looking for gold. But on May 19, a group of seven had done so. Heavy rains and flash flooding blocked the entrance, triggering a search that has folded in several Lao groups as well as the Thai team involved in the 2018 rescue.”
Apparently they were mining, so that would be a clue.
I recall a very similar incident happening in SE Asia not too many years ago.
Well, that doesn't sound good ...
Yes kind of like a cat mode doesn’t always end well.
**Off Topic Reflection on the 5 Villagers
Just for five minutes, I’m trying to imagine living that way; being so desperate for food and money to feed my family. that I would dive far, far down underwater looking for it. Not easy for me. My material needs are easily met for the time being. I have a few modest retirement accounts + Social Security, so if I need/want something, I could just go on Amazon, Walmart, Yami, or TEMU and order it, delivered clean and dry, to my doorstep. I have been blessed with good fortune, at least about these things.
And then I think of those thousands of folks in Southern California who last week, had to evacuate their homes due to a possible toxic explosion. That reminds me how quickly all that we have can be taken away by circumstances beyond our control. Fair or not fair.
Be thankful for what you’ve got while you’ve got it.
“”””There, huddled on a rock, their headtorches still illuminated””””
The magic of LEDs, what a great breakthrough in flashlights.
“Be thankful for what you’ve got while you’ve got it.”
Excellent point. Even the poorest in America are richer than many of those in other countries. We should be thankful.
What a Laosy situation to be in…
They could have just left one on at a time.
Not every rainstorm can be forecasted. A few years ago I was at a campground. The forecast called for sun all day. There were very few clouds and none were foreboding. Suddenly it just started pouring. It was long and sustained and flooded the campground
“”””They could have just left one on at a time.””””
That would still be LEDs, I’, sure they did ration their batteries but even a single LED flashlight (headlamp) can run hundreds of hours on low.
I came down the Mekong River by boat from Luang Prabang, Laos back in 2020. We slept in thatched huts along the river. The river was very low due to the four dams that China built on the river, blocking the water flow downstream.
I saw a lot of people along the Mekong River panning for gold. I just figure they were accessing new areas due to the low water.
China controls the water level on the Mekong with four up river dams. Their water releases are unpredictable.
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