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Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!

27 Jul 02 - 07:46 PM (#755641)
Subject: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: McGrath of Harlow

No "BS" because that doesn't seem the right heading. And anyway songs are never far away when there's a mining disaster.

Whatever happens with the technology, miners are always likely to face this kind of thing. And so are the families.

I hope the song that comes out of this one will be one with at least a part hopeful strand, like the Springhill Disaster, where "some were saved".

27 Jul 02 - 08:03 PM (#755648)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Gareth

I agree Kevin, from here in the Rhymney Valley we can only sypathise and pray.

Gareth

27 Jul 02 - 08:16 PM (#755654)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: catspaw49

For those not familiar with this ongoing news story, here's the latest from the AP:

Rescue Shafts Nearing Miners' Chamber


By Judy Lin
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 27, 2002; 2:22 PM


SOMERSET, Pa. – With heavy equipment and heartfelt prayers, rescue workers drew tantalizingly close Saturday to a dark and cramped chamber where they hoped to find nine trapped coal miners alive, and return them to their loved ones.

One of two rescue shafts being drilled reached a depth of 214 feet – less than 30 feet from the miners – by 1 p.m., Gov. Mark Schweiker said. Emergency officials were to decide how best to enter the 4-foot chamber in the Quecreek Mine where the men have been trapped since Wednesday.

"We've made significant progress," said Schweiker, who predicted rescuers could begin making attempts to pull miners out Saturday evening.

Even though there had been no contact with the miners since Thursday, when tapping was heard on an air hole, workers were optimistic that they were alive. The miners' families, encamped nearby, could only hope they were right.

"The best-case scenario is that when we pull the drill bit out we hear hollering," said David Hess, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Schweiker said if the drilling went well, one or both of the rescue shafts would reach the miners' chamber by Saturday afternoon. At that point, rescuers would decide how best to puncture a protective air pocket where they believed the miners were huddled, and send a basket to retrieve the miners one or two at a time.

"It's fair to say the deep mine rescuers will be ready," Schweiker said. "We will not miss a beat."

But once the rescue shaft was completed, it was expected to take time – perhaps hours more – for workers to ready machinery to lower people who would bring up the miners.

Helicopters were readied to whisk miners from the scene 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh to hospitals, and medical personnel were set to immediately treat injuries or hypothermia.

Nine decompression chambers also were placed at the scene. Medical personnel said the air pressure on the miners could be as much as is experienced at 40 feet underwater, and the men could suffer the bends – bubbles in the bloodstream caused by rapid changes in pressure – once they were rescued. An airlock was on site to keep the rescue shaft pressurized if needed.

Air was being pumped into the chamber at a temperature of more than 100 degrees in the hope that it would warm the men.

Schweiker also reported further progress in efforts to reduce the water level inside the mine, though it had not yet dropped the 30 feet needed to give the trapped men more room and ensure the pressure wouldn't cause water to rise when the drills finally punched through.

"The rate of what we're taking out has slowed a little bit," said Schweiker. He said a couple more feet of water needed to be drained in the mine.

Schweiker said Saturday morning families of the trapped miners were encouraged – particularly after a frustrating day of drilling Friday – when he showed them a handful of limestone from a depth of 150 feet.

"That served to buoy their spirits," the governor said.

Dozens of family members kept a vigil at a fire hall in nearby Sipesville, and had made several trips to the rescue site. The governor said officials were meeting with them every hour to bring them up to date.

There was no clear indication the miners, ages 30 to 55, were still alive. Rescuers twice tried to listen Friday, but noise from rescue equipment made it too difficult to hear tapping sounds or other noises.

The accident occurred about 9 p.m. Wednesday when the miners broke the wall of an abandoned mine that maps showed to be some 300 feet farther away. As much as 60 million gallons of water rushed into the shaft where they were working.

The miners were able to warn a second crew, which escaped.

The rescue attempt has transfixed the region, a hilly, rural area long dependent on coal and one that suffered tragedy during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The 40 passengers and crew on Flight 93 died when it was taken over by hijackers and crashed near Shanksville, about 10 miles from the mine. Schweiker said family members of Flight 93 victims sent an e-mail message to the families of the miners.

"This eight-county area is famous for its mines and its miners, and everyone knows someone in the mines, so it's really hit close," said Alex Zinovenko, 45. "You figure something like this could happen. Can you be prepared? I don't think so. We're knocked around a bit by this."


© 2002 The Associated Press

27 Jul 02 - 09:42 PM (#755693)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Ebbie

We can only wait and hope and send good thoughts. There's nothing quite like a successful rescue- let's hope they all emerge with a story to relate to their grandchildren...

27 Jul 02 - 09:51 PM (#755695)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Amos

While I am glad they are taking precautions I doubt an ascent from 40 feet is going to be too serious -- especially if they pause and breathe regularly on the way up (if they are able to breathe at all!) . Divers bounce to 40 feet regularly; of course, staying there for days makes a significant difference in residual NO levels.

A

27 Jul 02 - 10:34 PM (#755707)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: GUEST,mg

I read something..think on Drudge report..that said 87,000 miners from have been killed since 1870. In Pennsylvania alone. mg

27 Jul 02 - 10:59 PM (#755720)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Sorcha

Sad to say, but as long as there are mines there will be mine disasters. I wish that "we" didn't need mines anymore. I simply can't imagine anything worse than being trapped below ground in a mine and I am not a bit claustrophobic.

27 Jul 02 - 11:33 PM (#755732)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: wysiwyg

Wire services are reporting all 9 are alive, and communication esptablished now with them. This is according to a family member who got official word-- also according to a rescue worker involved in making communication with the trapped miners. Governor confirms...

~S~

27 Jul 02 - 11:40 PM (#755734)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: wysiwyg

The Governor is saying that all nine are alive. He believes all nine are in "pretty good shape." Rescue efforts continue...

~S~

27 Jul 02 - 11:46 PM (#755737)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: wysiwyg

Per the Governor-- Next is to work on lowering a rescue chamber. The work to locate them down there, that they had thought they would need to do, will not be necessary-- they are right on target with the shaft they drilled.

The Rescue Chief/spokesperson is saying that they got through a little sooner than they had anticipated, and heard taps immediately... they shut down all movement to listen... water levels had dropped fast enough to make communication efforts technologically possible... it sounds like it was a two-way conversation with the miners. They are reminding us that many risks remain, for the miners as well as the rescuers... it's an unlined, unstable shaft they will use to lower a rescue basket and drag it back up again... they are readying a second shaft should it be needed... they will be sending down provisions and blankets, first, as soon as possible, so the men get supplies to hold them as long as it takes to slowly bring them up.

~S~

27 Jul 02 - 11:46 PM (#755738)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Sorcha

Thank you Susan, for the update.

27 Jul 02 - 11:46 PM (#755739)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: wysiwyg

CNN live now.

~S~

27 Jul 02 - 11:48 PM (#755740)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: wysiwyg

On miner is having some minor cardiac stress, a doctor was talking to him...

If you can "see" these details please pray over them.

~S~

27 Jul 02 - 11:50 PM (#755741)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: wysiwyg

I believe the concern over decompression is about increased air pressure from the water levels.

~S~

28 Jul 02 - 12:01 AM (#755750)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Sorcha

OK. In my own way.

28 Jul 02 - 12:10 AM (#755758)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: wysiwyg

Ob tourse! Always.

~S~

28 Jul 02 - 01:13 AM (#755784)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: katlaughing

They just ran a news flash across the bottom of our tv screen saying they were all alive and had been reached.

28 Jul 02 - 01:24 AM (#755789)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: rangeroger

The report I just read said they have been in contact. All 9 are alive and doing very well and the first one has been pulled up and out in a special rescue capsule.

rr

28 Jul 02 - 02:28 AM (#755812)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: GUEST,mg

I THINK there are 6 out now..in good shape..one iwth mild heart symptoms. mg

28 Jul 02 - 02:36 AM (#755815)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: katlaughing

Looks like one more, now and the last two to come shortly. There's a photo on the main page of the www.drudge.com report with this story:

By Judy Lin
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, July 28, 2002; 2:13 AM


SOMERSET, Pa. –– Rescue workers on Sunday began pulling nine miners from the watery, 240-foot-deep shaft where they had been trapped for three days, a jubilant reward for an effort that had been fraught with one gut-wrenching setback after another.

The seventh of nine coal miners emerged around 2:20 a.m.

All nine miners were found alive Saturday night 240 feet underground, and rescuers rushed to pull them from the flooded shaft.

After crews struggled two giant drills for more than 74 frustrating hours without signs of life, Gov. Mark Schweiker appeared before reporters Saturday night and raised his fists over his head.

All nine are alive," he said. "And we believe that all nine are in pretty good shape."

Randy Fogle, 43, of Garrett, was the first to be pulled from the 26-inch wide hole. He had reported feeling "some heart stress" while still in the mine.

Officials identified the next six miners rescued as Harry Mayhugh, Tom Foy, John Unger, John Phillippi, Ron Hileman and Dennis J. Hall.

Officials said they would be able to pull the miners up one at a time at roughly 10- to 15-minute intervals.

© 2002 The Associated Press

28 Jul 02 - 03:02 AM (#755820)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: GUEST,mg

years ago I used to go to these Welsh music sings...they were wonderful..there was a church in Seattle that I think was predominantly Welsh..might even have had services in Welsh...it was near Seattle Community College...had something to do with the funeral home right near by..Bonney???something...anyway, they could sure sing. And a troop of them would always come from Black Diamond. They were the old miners. Black Diamond Washington..Renton..Issaquah..all old mining towns...fires were still burning a few years ago in some of the mines..my brother told me there were places in Issaquah where you could just fall into old shafts etc...

anyway, I went to Black Diamond to the graveyard one day...there was a gravestone with five Italian names and one maybe Welsh??? Something else anyway...

Anyway, here is a song that came from that..

Black as a miner's face
black as a foreman's heart
black as the weather when we buried them together
cause we couldn't tell their bones apart
couldn't tell their bones apart

green the few dollars we earn
green the wet wood we must burn
on the banks of green river the miners' children shiver
and they know that it soon will be their turn
know that it soon will be their turn

white for a sliver of soap
white for our last ray of hope
white for the coffin that our town has seen so often
carried up that wet mosy slope
carried up that wet mossy slope

red for the sun we hear shines
red for the red danger signs
and the fires underground that will burn the year around
in the tunnels of the black diamond mines
tunnels of the black diamond mines

mg

28 Jul 02 - 03:14 AM (#755827)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Genie

I just heard on the 11:00 PM news (PST) that all nine are alive and expected to be OK. FANTASTIC NEWS!

Genie

28 Jul 02 - 03:17 AM (#755829)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Genie

Are the last two out yet?

28 Jul 02 - 03:49 AM (#755834)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Chip2447

all are out alive and not suffering from the incident as badly as was expected...

28 Jul 02 - 04:36 AM (#755845)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Genie

Great news!

28 Jul 02 - 10:50 AM (#755895)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: katlaughing

mg, beautiful song!!

28 Jul 02 - 11:47 AM (#755915)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Mudlark

mg, thanks for the song! What great news to wake up to!

28 Jul 02 - 01:21 PM (#755956)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Jeri

There's a story here.

28 Jul 02 - 01:48 PM (#755964)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: The Pooka

Hurrrrrrrrah!!! Finally, a happy outcome. Miraculous. A great tribute to the brave tough miners (all 9 of them middle-aged btw, I read, not a young whippersnapper among 'em) and to the indefatigable & very smart rescuers.

Now --- how 'bout a collaborative Mudcat mine-disaster song with this happy ending? Y'know, like The Mary Ellen Carter, or something. (Protest-y verses re dangers and conditions can still be included, if yez want.) / Hmmph? Nono, I ain't got the talent to write 'em; I just suggest 'em. / Like a bigfat CEO, yknow. :)

28 Jul 02 - 03:09 PM (#755989)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Liz the Squeak

Can we change the name of the thread to Pennsylv. Mine Miracle?

Beyond all hope.... no words to add.

LTS

28 Jul 02 - 03:45 PM (#755998)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: alanabit

Some good news at last. Made my day.

28 Jul 02 - 04:09 PM (#756004)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Escamillo

My day too. Rescuers seem to be the heroes of these days of general lack of solidarity. There IS hope.

Un abrazo - Andrés

28 Jul 02 - 04:24 PM (#756013)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: The Walrus

After the news coming out of the Ukrane and from Moscow, it's great to have some *GOOD* news for a change.
Well done to all the rescue crew.

Walrus

28 Jul 02 - 04:29 PM (#756017)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster
From: Gareth

Some one up there smiled, thank God.

Gareth

28 Jul 02 - 08:00 PM (#756090)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: CapriUni

More on the Miracle Front:

ABC's (American Broadcasting Company) World News Tonight showed a soundbite of one of the rescuers saying that if the first drill bit hadn't broken, delaying the drilling by many hours, than they would have reached the chamber before enough water had been pumped out -- they would've hit water instead of air, which would've been a real disaster.

Angels and gods were working overtime, this time, it seems...

29 Jul 02 - 02:18 AM (#756199)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: Liz the Squeak

Thank you little elf for changing the title.... and Capri for that little bit of extra information. Someone was indeed feeling generous.

LTS

29 Jul 02 - 03:00 AM (#756211)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: catspaw49

BLACK HUMOR ALERT:

Well nuts......Rescued huh? A perfectly good song or dozen shot to hell.

(Truly a miracle)

Spaw

29 Jul 02 - 04:03 AM (#756229)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: GUEST,John Gray @ work

Yes, its absolutely marvellous that all those good men got out alive. I caught 3 of them on the news, giving brief comments about coming out alive, and they were all to do with praying and God and so forth.
I don't have a problem with those of a religious bent but I thought they could have somewhere fitted in that their rescue was also due to the hard work, dedication and skill of their confederates toiling fevershly on the surface.

FME / JG

29 Jul 02 - 09:11 AM (#756342)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: SharonA

Yes, it was indeed marvelous. Very, very, very, very good news.

John Gray, I'm sure that the trapped miners gave credit to the many people who worked so hard to free them. It's just that not every sound bite makes it to the airwaves. Certainly, I saw video clips on the TV news over the last several days wherein spokesmen for the rescuers and for the miners' families acknowledged the tireless effort being made and thanked those who were making it.

By the way, Somerset is about 25 miles, more or less, from Johnstown, PA, site of the famous flood of 1889. The area has quite a history of disaster. This time, fortunately, the loss of life was averted.

One of the reasons for that was the quick thinking of, and cooperation between, the trapped miners themselves. They made the decision early on that they would either live as a group or die as a group. They tied themselves together so that, if anyone did perish, the body would not be swept away by the water. They huddled together to share body heat. They worked together to conserve the battery life of their helmet lights. And, of course, they talked to one another to keep the spirit of the group from falling into despair.

One of the sound bites I heard was a comment from one of the trapped miners that he was eager to recuperate from this ordeal and go back to work down in the mines! We are talking about a unique breed of people here!!

29 Jul 02 - 09:58 AM (#756368)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: McGrath of Harlow

< a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,764730,00.html">Here's a link to piece in today's Guardian which fills in a few aspects.

I think we can take it that ""What took you guys so long?" is a joke, rather than a complaint.

And here's a particularly thought-provoking quote:

Amid the celebrations, one former miner and organiser of the union "local", Joe Jashienski, said he knew the mines were not as they appeared on maps. "The last day they worked, they made this big space, as big as a ballfield, but they didn't put it on the map, because different people owned some of the coal." A senior person at the mine, which was then under different ownership, "didn't want nobody to know what he'd done because he didn't want to pay the royalty on it", Mr Jashienski claimed yesterday.

And that, it appears, was why the miners this week were nearly killed, when they broke through into the flooded section that wasn't on the map.

But the more important quote really is this one:

...the nine soon became trapped in cold water which rose, at one point, to their necks. Doctors yesterday reported that they had hugged each other to maintain their body temperatures. They were "supporting each other, literally at times," Mr Schweiker said in a television interview. If one was cold, "another two or three would literally hug him, surround him, give him their body warmth".

One society can produce miners like that, and rescue workers like that, and people like the firefighters of September 11 - and the crooked accountants and fatcat executives of companies like Enron and Anderson and so forth. And who is it gets the big money rewards and the fancy lifestyle - and most of the time, the media worship and the applause?

29 Jul 02 - 10:19 AM (#756377)
Subject: Lyr Add: DUW IT'S HARD (Max Boyce)
From: Nigel Parsons

At this point, All I can add is a song by Max Boyce, on the closure of Welsh coal mines.


DUW IT'S HARD

( Max Boyce)

In our little valley they've closed the colliery down,
And the pithead baths is a supermarket now.
Empty journeys red with rust rolled to rest amidst the dust
And the pithead baths is a supermarket now.

CHORUS:
'Cos it's hard, Duw it's hard.
It's harder than they will ever know.
And it's they must take the blame:
The price of coal's the same,
But the pithead baths is a supermarket now.

They came down here from England because our output's low —
Brief-cases full of bank clerks that have never been below.
And they'll close the valley's oldest mine, pretending that they're sad.
But don't you worry, Butty bach, we're really very glad.

My clean-clothes-locker's empty now, I've thrown away the key.
And I've sold my boots and muffler and my lamp-check one-five-three.
But I can't forget the times we had, the laughing midst the fear,
'Cos every time I cough I get a mining souvenir.

I took my old helmet home with me, filled it full of earth.
And I planted little flowers there, they grew for all they're worth.
And it's hanging in the glass-house now — a living memory,
Reminding me they could have grown in vases over me.

But I know the local magistrate, she's got a job for me
Though it's only counting buttons in the local factory.
We get coffee breaks and coffee breaks, coffee breaks and tea,
And now I know those dusty mines have seen the last of me.

'Cos it's hard, Duw it's hard.
it's harder than they will ever know.
And if ham was underground would it be twelve bob a pound,
The pithead baths is a supermarket now.
Aye, the pithead baths is a supermarket now.


Taken from Max Boyce: his songs and poems (pub.:Panther 1976)
NP

29 Jul 02 - 10:27 AM (#756379)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: Mrrzy

And only one apparently has the bends, wow! DEFINITELY folksong fodder!

29 Jul 02 - 11:15 AM (#756393)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: SharonA

Kevin (McGrath): Oh, yes, the "What took you guys so long?" comment was definitely a joke! My immediate reaction upon hearing about it, as a fellow American and a fellow Pennsylvanian, was to smile and chuckle a bit in appreciation of the joke. It's your basic acknoledgment-of-fear-but-refusal-to-show-it directly sort of humor. It never occurred to me that anyone would read it and interpret it as a complaint... but then, I'm not looking at it from outside the American culture!

29 Jul 02 - 12:28 PM (#756443)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: SharonA

Oops! Yes, I really do know how to spell "acknowledgment"; I just don't always know how to type! *sheesh* Sorry.

29 Jul 02 - 12:53 PM (#756454)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: Kim C

I am relieved all have been rescued.

What surprises me just a little, though, is that an accident like that can still happen in the Age of Advanced Technology. I guess there are some things that haven't caught up. At least the technology was there to get them out.

29 Jul 02 - 01:33 PM (#756468)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: McGrath of Harlow

I don't think there's be much likelihood of anyone from these irony soaked islands taking that "What took you guys so long?" as anything but a joke (possibly intended also as a comment on how remarkably fast the rescue work was done.)

But there are some people out in the cyberworld who might have a problem picking that up - after all it didn't come with an emoticon attached. So I thought it a good idea to mark it up.

Technology- I suppose they could have some kind of echo sounding device that would tell you when there was a water filled cavern on the other site of a wall. I suspect that in the old days, doing it with a pick and shovel, a canny miner would have very likely been able to tell by the sound - but the modern equipment would drown that out. So the modern technology could well be a key element in causing the disaster, as well as in the rescue.

But if Joe Jashienski is right, the essential thing was the greed of a mine owner, as so often before.

29 Jul 02 - 02:42 PM (#756513)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: SharonA

Speaking of the noise of modern equipment... One of the things the trapped miners said after the rescue is that they had never stopped tapping to let those above know they were alive. As was noted in the article Spaw posted, most of the time they could not be heard above the noise of the rescue equipment.

BTW, this excerpt from the following article details the modern equipment and method used to find the spot to dig the first hole (to pump in hot air): http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/28/mine.turning.point/index.html

The Man Behind the Miracle July 29, 2002 Posted: 1:31 PM EDT (1731 GMT)
By Jeff Goodell, Special to CNN.com

SOMERSET, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- ....Bob Long, 37, is an engineer technician for Civil Mining Environmental Engineering Inc. in Somerset. He's a modest guy, dressed in shorts and Nike sandals, with three gold chains around his neck.... In the back of his Chevy Blazer is about $60,000 worth of high-tech surveying equipment that Long used in the early hours of the rescue operation to decide exactly where to drill the first hole that located the miners. It was a crucial decision -- and it may well have been the turning point of the entire rescue operation. "If we would have been wrong," Long says, "this might have been a recovery operation, not a rescue."

Long had just gone to bed last Wednesday night at his home in nearby Boswell, Pennsylvania, when he got a call from his boss, Sean Isgan, who told him about the accident. "We need you and your GPS stuff down there right now," Isgan told him.

When Long arrived at the scene, it was chaos. The rescue team quickly decided that the first step would be to drill an exploratory hole, both to try locating the miners and to begin blowing compressed air into the tunnel to create an air bubble to keep the flooding waters at bay.

"The key question was, 'Where exactly were these guys?' " Long recalls. " 'And we were going to get them out by drilling a rescue shaft, where exactly do we drill it?' "

The miners who had escaped had told mine operators the general vicinity of their operations, but where the men had gone to escape the flooding waters was unknowable.

Even if they knew where they were, locating the spot from above was extraordinarily difficult. An error of a few feet either way or they might miss the tunnel entirely.

Drilling even a 6-inch hole 300 feet down took hours, and they did not have the luxury of poking around until they found the men. If they wanted to get these men out alive, the first hole had to be right.

The first step was to consult mine maps. Working with Joe Sbaffoni of the state Department of Environmental Protection and other mine rescue experts, they noted the general slope of the mine, figured out the high ground the workers might retreat to, and picked a spot on the map to drill.

It was up to Long, with help from Isgan, to translate the spot on the map to a spot on the ground. To add even more risk to the operation, a closer look at the mining map revealed that an underground gas line ran very close to the drilling spot. If that map was off, or Long made a mistake in his calculations, there could be some real fireworks when the drill bit hit the gas pipe.

Working frantically, Long set up his GPS surveying equipment. Global positioning satellite systems are a high-tech device used in everything from minivans to smart bombs. They work by triangulating radio signals between a low-orbit satellite, a fixed point, a third (and often moving) point.

The better the GPS system, the more accurate it is, and Long's equipment is top-of-the line -- essentially the same one used by the U.S. military. "It's accurate within less than a centimeter," Long said.

He set up some general coordinates in the field nearby and took some readings to get oriented. Then he entered the mine map coordinates into his laptop and translated them to his GPS system.

He then grabbed a small hand-held device called a "rover" and began walking in the general direction of the spot they had picked out. The satellite beamed down information to the transmitter he had set up on a tripod, which relayed the signal to the rover, eventually guiding him to a spot very close to an access road near the highway.

At about 1:15 a.m. Thursday -- not much more than an hour after he had arrived -- Long held his breath and drove a stake into the ground: that was the spot they would drill.

As the rig positioned itself over the spot, Long was nearly unwound by anxiety. "What if we'd have been off by three feet, and hit one of the mine pillars? We'd have had no idea it was a pillar, or if we'd missed the tunnel by an inch or a mile.

"Basically, we'd have had to just throw all the maps into the trash and just drill 10 feet this way, 10 feet that way, until we found the tunnel. Who knows how long it might have taken?"

As the drill bit began chewing into the earth, Long left to do some more surveying in another area. About an hour and a half later, he returned, just in time to hear that the drill bit had broken through to the tunnel.

He was thrilled, but not as thrilled as he was about five minutes later, when he heard nine distinct metallic clangs -- the sound of the trapped men pounding on the drill bit with their mining hammers. "It was the sweetest sound I've ever heard," Long said, smiling broadly.

29 Jul 02 - 03:30 PM (#756537)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: GUEST,McGrath of Harlow

But wouldn't it just be a great Radio Ballad, with the voices of the miners and the rescuers, and the technical guys and the families who waited, and the union organisers. And the songs growing out of the interviews, and holding it together.

Why not? Why should we see the work of Charles Parker and Ewan MacColl as just a historical curiosity, and not as a signpost pointing us down a road that hasn't been travelled yet?

30 Jul 02 - 09:29 AM (#756883)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy

definitely NOT a miracle, just hard work from committed people on top, & correct action from experienced cool-headed miners down below. No angels, no divine intervention. Does makes you wonder why people are still doing this. We shouldn't be burning coal for most things any way, and it shouldn't be the 'property' of some 'owner' who can exploit labor to mine his riches for him.

Makes me want to sing Merle Travis' 'Dark as a Dungeon' a few hundred times.

30 Jul 02 - 07:10 PM (#757197)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: Gareth

Gareth

30 Jul 02 - 07:32 PM (#757214)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: McGrath of Harlow

And this one of course, whuch I quoted at the start of the thread.

30 Jul 02 - 07:48 PM (#757221)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: katlaughing

Good points, Bill Kennedy, about why are we still doing this.

31 Jul 02 - 08:16 AM (#757473)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: SharonA

Why are we still doing this? Coal provides about 38% of the world's electricity and is used in iron production and nearly 70% of the world's steel production, and it is also the main binding ingredient in concrete, according to The World Coal Institute (http://www.wci-coal.com/web/content.php?menu_id=5.9.1). There's a LOT of industry that would have to be shifted away from coal usage, across the world, before the world would stop mining it.

31 Jul 02 - 08:32 AM (#757482)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: SharonA

Oh, yes, and – on a wry note – I hear on the news that the mining company in Somerset is going to pay those trapped miners overtime for the time they were trapped. Big whoop-de-doo. Not even double-overtime! Not a lot of compensation for all their physican and mental trauma, nor for the delayed-stress symptoms that are sure to follow. Some of the miners have announced already that they're not going back underground (although, as I said before, one guy intends to go back).

31 Jul 02 - 08:39 AM (#757486)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: CapriUni

Yeah, I heard about that overtime thing on the news, too... and it was being presented as if it was this great and generous offer.

Humpf!!

31 Jul 02 - 09:29 AM (#757505)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy

Just because we use coal for something is not a reason to continue to use coal for something. We have no business generating electricty by burning coal to heat water etc. And the history of coal mining in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, is one of shame, corruption.

Interesting that one of the miners, when asked why he does it, said it was because it paid $15. an hour, and he couldn't make that much doing anything else. That is at the heart of all the Enron, World Com, etc. problems, and the reason that Capitalism as it is practised today must someday be replaced with another system.

We need to demand a fair living wage, a maximum wage, not a minimum wage, & no private ownership of natural resources, which ultimately belong to the world. Same story about the women in Africa protesting Chevron, and why we are bombing Afghanistan and why we want to invade Iraq. Some oil industry execs want to get their grubby little hands on the oil, pay hardworking people the least they can to do the dangerous and difficult work, do little or nothing for the people who live there, pay off the people in power, people they 'can do business with', ie, corrupt, and ultimately amass as much money as they can, and subvert the peoples' will to their own by buying the government, and get the tax payers to give them a handout at the public trough of corporate welfare to boot, and then move an office off shore so they pay no taxes, but in some cases actually get tax credit refunds! The gall, the greed, the grief.

31 Jul 02 - 10:11 AM (#757518)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: SharonA

Bill, I didn't say the world should use coal. The question was "why are people still doing this?" and my answer was that the world does use so much coal that it would take a long time to retool the world's industry in order for it to use alternative sources of energy.

From what little I've read, it seems that the EU is already so much less dependent on coal than it had been that the coal industry sees its future there as a "challenge" (i.e. they're worried!). So perhaps this is the beginning of progress; a few decades or centuries down the road, the world may not use coal anymore at all. But in the meantime, people will still be "doing this."

31 Jul 02 - 08:25 PM (#757807)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: McGrath of Harlow

Basically because if you own a coalmine it's not worth anything if you can't get people to dig it out; and if you are in a mining community it's about the only work around.

Money.

01 Aug 02 - 05:18 AM (#757984)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: Nigel Parsons

McGofH: "Basically because if you own a coalmine it's not worth anything if you can't get people to dig it out; and if you are in a mining community it's about the only work around." This is why pits in UK are closing, they can't dig it out and still sell it at a profit, when external sources are cheaper. Of course this means that if the requirement for coal does not go away, eventually either prices from abroad will rise, or UK will be the only country left with reserves because of all the closed (but workable) mines

Nigel

01 Aug 02 - 09:43 AM (#758085)
Subject: RE: Pennsylvania mine disaster-MIRACLE!!
From: GUEST

Here is a link to PA's Dept of Deep Mining Safety, which is very interesting reading about mining disasters like the Jacobs Creek explosion in the Darr mine in 1908. 239 miners were killed a few days before Christmas.

Also has information about the robber barons/mining wars too:

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/dms/website/papers/minedisasters.htm