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.
SOMERSET, Pa., Jul 27, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Rescue workers made contact Saturday with some of the nine miners who have been trapped underground for three days via a telephone dropped through a pipe, according to rescue officials.
Rescuers were seen hugging and giving the thumbs-up sign soon after dropping the telephone into the shaft 240 feet below.
"They're all down there. They're waiting to come up. There's nine of them. We talked to them on the telephone," a mud-caked rescue worker shouted up from the pit near where they dropped the communication device.
After three days of desperate drilling, a giant auger broke through at about 10:16 p.m. to the dark and cramped chamber where the miners had been trapped since 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Workers quickly set about removing the drill and preparing the shaft for a rescue capsule.
Rescue workers had remained optimistic the miners were alive, even though there had been no contact with them since midday Thursday, when tapping was heard on an air hole.
Dozens of family members had kept a vigil at a nearby fire hall and had made several trips to the rescue site. Officials met with them every hour to keep them apprised.
Reaching the men, who were believed to be in a 4-foot high chamber, was sometimes painfully slow. Drilling a rescue shaft to the men, age 30 to 55, didn't begin until more than 20 hours after the accident, because workers had to wait for a drill rig to arrive from West Virginia. And drilling was halted early Friday morning because a 1,500-pound drill bit broke after hitting hard rock about 100 feet down.
A second rescue shaft was started and it wasn't until Saturday that measurable progress was being made on both shafts.
Pumps had been draining the mine of some 50 to 60 million gallons of water for days, but it was not known how much, if any, water had been in the chamber where the miners were believed to be.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Concur. Fox' coverage has been a disgrace.
Fox really blew it.
My finger has a built in anti-CNN twitch when channel surfing, had to override it tonight.
CNN did a very good job.
'this is gonna take a while'
(governor's cohort at press conference)
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