Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good

Subject: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 12:18 AM

The evening news just announced a breaking story of Measured systematic sounds from inside the coal mine. The story said it couldn't confirm anything but a steady sound for 5 minutes. At least it is some hope.

Don

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 12:23 AM

That is good news, Don! We've had a lot of coverage here as we are only thirty miles or so from the eastern border of Utah and we get a lot of Utahans who shop here, etc. Lots of family connections between this part of Colorado and Utah.

It is so heart-wrenching and makes me wonder just why we haven't done better at eliminating such a need for coal which comes at such high prices. Not meaning for a huge discussion, it just saddens me that we haven't done better for our environment and for the miners.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: Janie
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 01:37 AM

Hoping and praying....

Janie

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 09:26 AM

It would be nice, but it's been a long time...food and especially water gives out...

Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam....

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: HouseCat
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 12:54 PM

My grandfather was a miner. My grandmother lived in daily fear of just such an event, and he did narrowly miss being killed in 1926 in the Mossboro Mine disaster in Alabama. He died of black lung before I was born, and Granny always said, "The mines will get you, one way or the other." You're right, Kat. There just ought to be a better way. Prayers for the miners and families will continue.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 02:03 PM

There's a good article, posted four hours ago, HERE.

It has some alarming things, i.e. they could be spread out over an area the equivalent of several football fields; the noises could have been rocks or an animal. On the other hand it cites a couple of times when miners were rescued at or beyond ten days. There is still some hope.

HouseCat, that is so sad about your granddad.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: gnu
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 04:40 PM

I've been in a coal mine. Takes a tough lad to work in one, to work in any mine. Thoughts and prayers to them and the familiies. And, hope.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 08:18 PM

It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine. . .

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 09:57 PM

...Three days passed and the lights gave out
Then Caleb Rushton he upped and said,
"We've no more water or light or bread,
So we live on hope and songs instead,
We live on hope and songs instead....

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 02:11 AM

This is so sad. Now two of the rescuers have been killed and several others injured during the efforts to find the trapped miners. And, it seems they were a bit hasty in talking about the noise heard:

Officials say it's impossible to know what caused the vibrations and on Thursday clarified the limits of the technology.

The device, called a geophone, can pinpoint the direction of the source of the disturbance, but it can't tell whether it came from within the mine, the layers of rock above the mine or from the mountain's surface, said Richard Stickler, chief of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The "noise," a term he used a day before, wasn't anything officials could hear, Stickler said. "Really, it's not sounds but vibrations."

This is a shameful thing to have happen in this day and age, imo. May their god/s watch over them all and bring a swift solution to the situation.

Officials stressed that the motion picked up by the geophones could be unrelated to the mine, even as they drilled the new hole in an effort to uncover the source of it.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 11:27 AM

Three rescuers dead....

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 01:16 PM

Search stopped because of the rescuer casualties...

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 01:17 PM

...Four miles of earth as a marking stone
Four miles of earth as a marking stone.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 10:51 PM

Very sad.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good
From: Alice
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 11:02 PM

yes, very sad. Some of my relatives were coal miners. A couple of uncles
worked in the mine in Scranton, PA. There was a fire, and one of my uncles
pulled his bother out by lifting him under the armpits and dragging him.
The imprints of his hands stayed in the flesh of his brother for the rest of his life.

We have to replace coal energy with other cleaner, safer sources. It will take time, though.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good
From: Janie
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 11:19 PM

Is it unusual for a coal mine in the West to be non-union?

Janie

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 11:21 PM

Not anymore. The Unions were broken some time ago.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good
From: Bee
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 11:45 PM

Nova Scotians watch this with a little extra sadness - so much death is connected to coal mining. We know it well here, almost anyone you speak to will have lost relatives over the last century. Westray is still very much in our minds, and we wonder if corners were cut, what safety measures ignored.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good
From: Janie
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 01:23 AM

Same with me, Bee. My grandfather died in a roof collapse in a deep mine in West Virginia when Mom was 9 years old.

Thanks for answering my question, Rapaire. Deep mining is such dangerous work, even under the best of circumstances. I've been following this story closely, and I am sure I am not the only person thinking this accident might not have happened in a Union mine. A union miner could have expressed safety concerns or protested unsafe conditions without fear of losing his job. If enough mines in the region were organized, the UMW would have the clout to force some significant safety measures and mining practices on the industry.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good
From: Bee
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 09:08 AM

My husband, though not a miner, is a union trade worker, and has worked on many mega-projects going on across the country. At least in Canada the companies that run these have become a little more safety aware than they used to be, partly because skilled trade workers are presently at a premium, so they are forced to hire union workers. He is often a member of the safety committee, and will refuse to compromise on any safety issue. We've watched some of those mega-builders/mega project documentaries which are mostly set in the US, and he is astounded at the number of what would be considered safety violations serious enough to shut down a job site here.

Subject: RE: Good News: Noise From The Mine-Update-not so good
From: rangeroger
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 11:44 PM

The UMW offered trained union mine rescue workers to help with the rescue, but the mine owners refused their help.
Said they could handle it on their own.

rr