Posted on 07/28/2002 4:10:52 PM PDT by Alouette
SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) - The nine coal miners who were rescued from a cramped, flooded shaft Sunday decided early in their 77-hour ordeal that they would "live or die as a group," tying themselves together so all their bodies would be found if they drowned.
They also scrawled last messages to loved ones as they huddled together to keep warm 240 feet below the Earth's surface.
"I didn't think I was going to see my wife and kids again," a teary-eyed Blaine Mayhugh told reporters, hours after being pulled out of the Quecreek Mine in western Pennsylvania.
He, his father-in-law and the seven others were stuck for more than three agonizing days, often in darkness, after water from an abandoned, water-filled mine flooded the shaft where they were working.
A desperate rescue operation that included more than 150 workers, tons of heavy equipment and 18 medical helicopters finally paid off when rescuers reached the miners Sunday morning and pulled them up a narrow shaft, one by one, in a yellow cylindrical capsule.
Though they were covered in coal dust and their heavy-duty clothes were soaked through, the miners emerged in surprisingly good physical condition.
"If you were to meet any of these guys on the street right now, you would not know that they were trapped in a cavern full of water for three days," said Dr. Russell Dumire, a trauma surgeon at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, where six of the men were taken.
One of the miners was in a decompression chamber after experiencing early symptoms of the bends, an excruciating condition caused by sudden changes in pressure, Dumire said. Two others were under observation, including Mayhugh's father-in-law, Thomas Foy, 51.
Foy told family members "he'll never go underground again," said his daughter, Tonya Butler, 26.
At the White House, President Bush "was thrilled to know that all of the miners had been rescued," spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
The miners had two working lights but saved them for forays into the shaft. Mayhugh, 31, said the men were "snuggling each other, laying up against each other, sitting back-to-back to each other, anything to produce body heat."
The miners also huddled around a pipe funneling down warm air.
The miners, Dumire said, "decided early on they were either going to live or die as a group."
Around noon Thursday, Mayhugh asked his boss for a pen when the water in the shaft was rising. "I said, 'I want to write my wife and kids to tell them I love them,'" said Mayhugh, choking back tears.
By 10:16 p.m. Saturday, rescuers had bored through the ceiling where the miners were trapped. The breakthrough let workers drop a telephone and confirm they were alive.
One of the miners reportedly requested chewing tobacco. As a result, Conemaugh hospital was inundated with chewing tobacco though doctors wouldn't immediately allow it, or the beer some miners requested, for fear of dehydration.
At the hospital, hunger overtook the miners, who "pretty much devoured anything that was put in front of them" — doughnuts, sandwiches, soup and coffee, Dumire said.
David Hess, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, promised a joint federal-state investigation to help determine why underground maps apparently showed the abandoned Saxman Mine some 300 feet away from where the miners were working.
The first miner was pulled through the 26-inch wide hole at about 1 a.m. Sunday — to the wild applause of rescuers. His comrades emerged in roughly 15-minute intervals, with the last one appearing at about 2:45 a.m. Some had chipped American flag decals on the sides of their helmets.
The first to come out, 43-year-old Randy Fogle, had reported feeling chest pains in the mine. Hospital officials said he has a history of heart problems and would remain hospitalized until at least Monday.
The miners surprised medical personnel who had prepared to treat them for symptoms of hypothermia or the bends. Decompression chambers, ambulances and 18 helicopters were at the scene 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
After word came the men were alive, the Sipesville Fire Hall, where the families of the men had been gathering, erupted in celebration.
Though the miners had not been heard since Thursday because of the noise of rescue equipment, mining company spokesman John Weir said they "were tapping the whole time they were down there."
The rescue attempt transfixed the nation and the region, a rural area where the hijacked Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11.
The miners became trapped about 9 p.m. Wednesday, when they inadvertently broke into an abandoned, water-filled mine that maps showed to be 300 feet away.
Mayhugh said a 4-foot wall of water — as many as 60 million gallons — came crashing through the breached wall. "We tried to outrun it, but it was too fast," he said.
But they were able to warn a second crew, which escaped.
"They are the heroes. If not for them, there'd be dead bodies," said mine worker Doug Custer, among the group who escaped.
The trapped miners spent roughly five hours in the water, at one point attempting to break through another wall to try to bring the water level down. Instead, the level rose, forcing them to swim in their heavy miners' clothes, Mayhugh said.
Drilling a rescue shaft to the men, who ranged in age from early 30s through early 50s, began more than 20 hours after the accident when a drill rig arrived from West Virginia. Drilling was halted early Friday morning because a 1,500-pound drill bit broke after hitting hard rock about 100 feet down, delaying the effort by 18 hours.
A second rescue shaft was started, and it wasn't until Saturday that measurable progress was being made on both shafts.
Mayhugh's wife, Leslie, said she prayed throughout the ordeal. "I knew I couldn't lose my dad and my husband. I just knew it. It wasn't their day," she said.
Mayhugh said he "feels great" physically. "But emotionally ... it's going to take time to heal."
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| Sun Jul 28,12:34 PM ET |
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The third of the 9 trapped miners at the Quecreek Mine is helped out of the rescue capsule in Somerset, Pennsylvania on July 28, 2002. Despite hunger, fatigue and dangerously cold temperatures, rescuers found all nine men alive and in good condition. (Guy Wathen/Pool via Reuters) |
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Roebling was so badly afflicted that he could barely communicate. It is thought that his wife, Mary, was responsible for finishing the bridge.
Remember this one?
Trapped in a mine that's half-caved in,
And everyone knew the only ones left were Joe, and me, and Tim;
When they broke through to pull us free, the only ones left to tell the tale were Joe ...
... and me.
Timothy ... Timothy ...
Where on earth did you go?
Timothy ... Timothy ...
God, why don't I know?
Hungry as hell, no food to eat,
And Joe said to me he'd sell his soul for just a piece of meat;
Water enough to drink for two, so Joe said to me, "I'll take a swig and then there's some for you".
Timothy ... Timothy ...
God, I wish that I knew ...
Timothy ... Timothy ...
Joe, what did we do?
I must have passed out just 'bout then
'Cause the very next thing that I could see was the light of the day again.
Our stomachs were full as they could be
And nobody ever got around to finding Timothy.
Timothy ... Timothy ...
Where on earth did you go?
Timothy ... Timothy ...
God, why don't I know?
And what does that have to do with putting them in decompression chambers for a few hours?!?!?!
Are you saying people would have thought less of them if they had to be decompressed?
You're just rambling now.
I guess there was a rumor that the song was based on a true story.
I still have that tune in my head.
Looks like I'm off to Bearshare.
But what they don't tell you is that Timothy was the mine's mule, back in the days when they used mules to pull out the ore cars.
I remember thinking "Holy $hit", myself, when I first heard this, positive that they were talking about cannabilism. It does make more sense, knowing that they're talking about the mule, but it does take away the horrible fascination with the song.
I'm still waiting to hear you tell me why putting the men into a decompression chamber would have made a difference as to whether or not they were heroes.
How about this tune (one of my favorites if you've ever heard it):
BIG BAD JOHN
Every morning at the mine you could see him arrive
He stood six foot six and weighed two forty five
Kinda broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip
And everybody knew you didn't give no lip to Big John
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
Nobody seem to know where John called home
He just drifted into town and stayed all alone
He didn't say much he was kinda shy
And if you spoke at all you just said "hi" to Big John
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
Somebody said he came from New Orleans
Where he got in a fight over a Cajun queen
And a crashin' blow from a huge right hand
Sent a Louisiana fella to the Promised Land
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
Then came the day at the bottom of the mine
When a timber cracked and men started cryin'
Miners were prayin' and hearts beat fast
And everybody thought that they'd breathed their last 'cept John
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
Through the dust and the smoke of that man made hell
Walked a giant of a man that the miners knew well
He grabbed a saggin' timber and gave out a groan
And like a giant oak tree just stood there alone
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
And with all of his strength he gave a mighty shove
Then a miner yelled out "There's a light up above!"
And twenty men scrambled from a would be grave
And now there's only one left down there to save, Big John
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
With jacks and timbers they started back down
Then came that rumble way down in the ground
Then smoke and gas belched out of that mine
Everyone knew it was the end of the line for Big John
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
Now they never reopened that worthless pit
They just placed a marble stand in front of it
These few words are written on that stand
"AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS MINE
LIES A BIG, BIG MAN
BIG JOHN"
Big John, Big John, Big Bad John
Sounds like the other posted message proposes a silly hypothesis. Typically contrarian in a board where such behavior is rampant, such conspiracy theories are really over the edge.
I'll have to try again later. But now you've gotten my interest up.
Never heard the mule story. I wish I'd have know that long ago, it would have really helped me sleep. ;-)
One second of critical thinking tells you the theory is worthless.
So how common are hyperbaric chambers in trauma centers?
I know the Navy brought some to the hospital (the carrier took a chunk out of a pedestrian walkway), but what would happen if they needed one and one wasn't there?
Thanks for that -- I'd been wondering about him, too.
Of course, even at that I figure he was on-site because it's all he'd be thinking about anyway, and he might as well just go there and get it over with. Of course, if he ever does take up politics again he's got these folks' votes sewed up.
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