Posted on 07/27/2002 6:16:49 PM PDT by Petronski
Watch and pray. The rescuers are optimistic that they will reach the cavity where the miners are located by midnight, perhaps as soon as 10pm et.
They just reported that several PA miners were caught in a similar situation thirty years ago AND WERE RESCUED ALIVE AFTER A WEEK IN THE HOLE.
I'm sure that you are right! God was helping while the will to succeed (and MANY prayers) drove everyone involved - no 'union rules' in play in that round the clock rescue effort!
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
The Associated Press
SOMERSET, Pa. (July 28) - Cheering and waving their hands in the air, families and friends of the nine coal miners discovered alive celebrated after their torturous three-day wait came to an end.
``I don't want to use the term loosely, but it was a miracle,'' said David Streets, a distant relation of Robert Pugh, one of the miners.
Hundreds of people had gathered in the Sipesville Fire Hall, where many family members had been keeping vigil for days. When news came Saturday night that the men were safe, the room exploded with euphoria.
``There was so much hope in that room it was incredible,'' said Sandra Watkins, a friend of trapped miner John Unger.
On Friday night, the families of the victims of Flight 93 sent along words of support and encouragement to the loved ones of the miners. The mine several hundred feet underground was not far from the Sept. 11 crash site.
``During our time of tragedy, you extended yourselves to us and tirelessly continued to do so. We consider you our family, and we sincerely hope and pray that the recovery effort will be successful in bringing your loved ones home,'' said the e-mail, which was signed ``The Families of United Flight 93.''
At a news conference Saturday, Gov. Mark Schweiker held up a copy of the e-mail from the Flight 93 victims' families sent to a group they called ``the Somerset mining families.''
``It was uplifting to know that families that had suffered on Sept. 11 by virtue of that plane crashing ... into the Somerset County hillside took the time to express their sentiments and be supportive,'' Schweiker said.
Schweiker called the e-mail ``exemplary of how the nation has responded with incredible support'' for the victims of Wednesday's accident.
The family members had made several trips to the rescue site and officials met with them every hour.
Although it had been a long wait, friends said the families never gave up hope that the miners were alive.
``In the room there was a gamut of emotions and hope,'' Streets said. ``When the drill bit broke, some of those hopes were dashed, but there was never any despair.''
07/28/02 00:56 EDT
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.
What a great piece of news to wake up to on this fine fine day!
It's the wonderful power of man's will, the rescue workers, and great luck that you should be thanking.
I sure as heck wish he WAS running instead of FIsher and REndell. BTW it lloks like RENDELL is going to get it. He's way ahead in the polls. GO figure.
Oh well it'll give me something to FReep about for the next 4 years.
prisoner6
prisoner6
All the time!!
I bet the miners that were rescued would beg to differ with you. I know the mine superintendent would.
The logic behind moving it was that there were starting to be posted stories that had the full details, and it was decided it would be easier/faster for people to find what happened from one of those instead of having to page through 400 comments to find the details. And in general, to keep discussions from fragmenting as much as we can, we try to keep only one story in the BN sidebar for a given topic.
In retrospect, it would have been better to do what we ended up doing, which was leaving this in it and letting one or two of the others in it. Sorry that that mistake in judgement was made. Thanks, AM
We could do a lot worse than having him in national office (Ridge, Spectre).I think you just hit on what he'll do after making some private sector dough. Specter can't last forever.
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