To 13 brave men:

[cheerful_deviant]

13 Brave men went to work one day and have yet to return to the green grass.

Still holding onto hope.

 

[Despina]

The first (and last for that matter) report I heard was that the carbon monoxide levels were dangerously high and that no answer had been given to all the banging the drillers were doing.

Here's hoping, but I find it sad that with all the technology available to us tragedies like this are still happening.

 

[Guest]

13 Brave men went to work one day and have yet to return to the green grass.

Still holding onto hope.

So am I.

And I'm remembering the miracle miners rescued a few years ago.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

The first (and last for that matter) report I heard was that the carbon monoxide levels were dangerously high and that no answer had been given to all the banging the drillers were doing.

Here's hoping, but I find it sad that with all the technology available to us tragedies like this are still happening.

Mining has always been and probablly always well be a dangerous profession. Engineering and technology have made it thousands of times safer than it used to be but occasionally the cards just come up wrong.

Thankfully now fatalities in mining in the US are a fairly rare event. 100 years ago thay were an almost daily occurance and in many counteries and they still are. In 2003 in China, there were over 6000 fatalities in mine related accidents.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

So am I.

And I'm remembering the miracle miners rescued a few years ago.

It's truly amazing what technology can do at times. The ability to drive a 30" shaft, 300' thru solid bedrock to rescue trapped miners in a few days is amazing.

If only it worked so well all the time.

 

[Despina]

Mining has always been and probablly always well be a dangerous profession. Engineering and technology have made it thousands of times safer than it used to be but occasionally the cards just come up wrong.

Thankfully now fatalities in mining in the US are a fairly rare event. 100 years ago thay were an almost daily occurance and in many counteries and they still are. In 2003 in China, there were over 6000 fatalities in mine related accidents.

I can understand and appreciate the advancements, but I still think that with the levels of building codes and standards that exist for such unimportant structures as hot dog stands and ATM kiosks, the mines would have them such that they'd be indestructable. Maybe I'm just a cynic and realize that profit margins would be lower if mines were safer.

Nevertheless, I hope they manage a miracle this time as well.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

I can understand and appreciate the advancements, but I still think that with the levels of building codes and standards that exist for such unimportant structures as hot dog stands and ATM kiosks, the mines would have them such that they'd be indestructable. Maybe I'm just a cynic and realize that profit margins would be lower if mines were safer.

Nevertheless, I hope they manage a miracle this time as well.

There is a very comprehensive set of guidelines and regulations that all mines must follow. MSHA, (Mine Safety and Health Administration) has jurisdiction over all mines in the US and they conduct periodic inspections off all active mines in addition to inspections done by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). But mines are buisnesses and like all things, there are well run mines and poorly run mines. There are good managers and poor managers.

In fact this mine has been cited several times recnetly so it remains to be seen how this all plays out.

This may have been mine that was a disaster waiting to happen or just a unlucky roll of the dice.

 

[R. Richard]

I am just hoping for a miracle here.

 

[Alessia Brio]

One body has been recovered. No word on the other 12 men.

 

[cloudy]

One body has been recovered. No word on the other 12 men.

Oh, no.

 

[rgraham666]

The mine was cited for 208 violations in 2005, up from 68 in 2004.

I'd say it was a disaster waiting to happen.

I don't know if God hears the prayers of an agnostic, but I hope so.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

There are wire-service reports that the other twelve miners are alive.

Hope it's true.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Guest]

There are wire-service reports that the other twelve miners are alive.

Hope it's true.

Rumple Foreskin

I caught this story -

Rescuers find 12 trapped W. Virginia miners alive
Wednesday 4 January 2006, 0:18am EST
Printer Friendly | Email Article | Reprints | RSS


By Jon Hurdle

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va., Jan 4 (Reuters) - Twelve missing miners were found alive in a West Virginia coal mine nearly two days after they fled an explosion that sent lethal gases through the mine and killed one of their colleagues, family members said.

Rescue workers located the 12 men, who had been trapped underground since 6:30 a.m. (1130 GMT) on Monday and were bringing them out of the Sago mine in central West Virginia, family members said.

Anna McCloy, whose husband Randall McCloy was rescued said "This is wonderful, wonderful news, they are coming out."

Officials said the man who died appeared to have been let off the vehicle carrying his colleagues and was close to the explosion site, while the other 12, many of them veterans of the mine, had been deeper inside.

Church bells rang at the Sago Baptist Church where family members had waited fearfully for more than 36 hours and cheers broke out when the announcement was made. West Virginia officials had tried to maintain hope among the families, saying they should pray for a miracle.

Any hope of finding the men alive had been tempered with heavy caution because early tests found lethal levels of carbon monoxide in the tunnel where they were believed trapped. Each man carried about one hour's worth of clean air.

There had been no communication with the miners since the explosion, W. Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin told reporters.

There was no explanation for the explosion, which occurred

in a recently closed section of the mine that employs about 145 miners.

"We know that there had to be methane gas, or a buildup of fuel if you will, back there, and there had to be something that sparked it. And no one can speculate on ... what could have happened," Manchin said.

EXPLOSIVE GAS

He said there had been no cave-in but the explosion had broken seals preventing bad air from circulating in the mine as well as gas from the explosion. "Our employees were no doubt trying to find a safe way to exit the mine," he said.

The men had been trapped more than 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) inside the mine.

The incident came four years after nine Pennsylvania coal miners were rescued following a 77-hour ordeal in a flooded mine shaft 240 feet (73 metres) under ground.

The explosion happened when the mine was reopening after being closed for the holidays, said Manchin's spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg.

Since October, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued 50 citations to Sago mine, some as recently as Dec. 21, including citations for accumulation of combustible materials such as coal dust and loose coal.

The mine produces about 800,000 tons of coal annually and employs about 130 people.

(Additional reporting by Chriss Swaney in Pittsburgh, Claudia Parsons in New York, Adam Entous in Washington)

 

[rgraham666]

Thank God!

As a quick aside, a very good movie about coal mining is Margaret's Museum.

I got very weepy at the end of this movie.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

For the famly of the one who didn't make it.

 

[Guest]

For the famly of the one who didn't make it.

Yes - and isn't that awful?

As happy as I am that 12 have survived, the family of the one must be devastated.

 

[joeys-game]

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Yes - and isn't that awful?

As happy as I am that 12 have survived, the family of the one must be devastated.

I agree with that, I just read it on the news page.
Bittersweet.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Damn

Only 1 survivor rescued from W. Va. coal mine

Man hospitalized in critical condition after word that 12 of 13 survived

BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 3:23 a.m. ET Jan. 4, 2006


TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - Family members learned early Wednesday that 11 of the 12 coal miners who were initially thought to have survived an explosion in a coal mine have died.

Families learned of the deaths from mine officials more than three hours after Gov. Joe Manchin said he had been told 12 of the miners survived the disaster.

The sole survivor of the disaster was hospitalized, a doctor said.

International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield told the families that only one miner, Randal McCloy, had survived the explosion.

Hatfield told the families gathered at the Sago Baptist Church that "there had been a lack of communication, that what we were told was wrong and that only one survived," said John Groves, whose brother Jerry Groves was one of the trapped miners.

At that point, chaos broke out in the church and a fight started. Hatfield said the information spread quickly when people overheard cell phone calls.

In reality, rescuers had confirmed finding 12 miners and were checking their vital signs, he said. "That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center," he said at a news conference.

One found dead
Earlier in the day, rescue crews found the body of a 13th miner and said they were holding out hope that the others were still alive, even as precious time continued to slip away.

Then later Tuesday night families were told that 12 other men were alive. A relative at the church said a mine foreman called relatives there, saying the miners had been found.


A few minutes after word that they were alive came, the throng, several hundred strong, broke into a chorus of the hymn “How Great Thou Art,” in a chilly, night air.

“Miracles happen in West Virginia and today we got one,” said Charlotte Weaver, wife of Jack Weaver, one of the men who had been trapped in the mine.

“I got scared a lot of times, but I couldn’t give up,” she said. “We have an 11-year-old son, and I couldn’t go home and tell him, ’Daddy wasn’t coming home.”’

There were hugs and tears among the crowd outside the Sago Baptist Church near the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston.

Helen Winans, whose son Marshall Winans, was one of those trapped, said she believes there was divine intervention.

“The Lord takes care of them,” she said.

The miners had been trapped 260 feet below the surface of the mine since an explosion early Monday.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

oh my god... to have been the families who heard that erroneous information... to have been given hope for a moment only to have it dashed... that makes me even more ill than the whole accident...

 

[rgraham666]

Damn.

 

[impressive]

 

[yui]

 

[AppleBiter]

 

[Belegon]