12 Miners found alive!
Thank God! The W. Va. Coal Miners that had been trapped for 41 hours have been located and 12 of them are alive. There was a lot of concern over Carbon Monoxide levels.
From the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Families say 12 W.Va. miners found alive
Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive Tuesday night, more than 41 hours after the blast, family members said.
Bells at a church where relatives had been gathering rang out as family members ran out screaming in jubilation.
Relatives were yelling "They're alive!"
One miner was found dead earlier Tuesday, the mine's owner, International Coal Group Inc. said.
Neither the company nor the govenor's office immediately confirmed the news.
There were hugs and tears among the crowd outside the Sago Baptist Church located near the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston.
For wonderful boots-on-the-ground reporting, check out
Fifteen Minutes blog:
West Virginia mine explosion, my time there
UPDATE: I just heard, after e-mailing this post: Twelve alive. The church bells are ringing.
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I've had some time to sleep and some time to think about the past two days. It's a blur. I don't often like revealing my thought processes about my work and reporting, but I need to decompress. Here's what I remember, unedited and kinda raw.
The first you thing you notice driving through Buckhannon are the signs at area businesses, asking for prayers for the trapped miners. It's a little ominous and the town, though might small, is really quiet.
We went to the McDonalds for breakfast with a photographer from the AP out of Pittsburgh this morning. We really stuck out, not in a weird way, but a "we can tell you aren't from around here way." They're friendly, though, but they didn't recognize us and you could tell.
Everyone in the McDonalds was talking about the mine, sharing rumors they'd heard, stories of people they know in the mine and thoughts about the fate of those trapped. Despite the massive media presence, they really weren't passing much accurate information to each other. Don't know whose fault that is, because as I listen to the reports and read the wires, they're really accurately reporting what the Gov. and the coal company is telling us.
Fifteen Minutes will be added to the blogroll at the next update -- great writing and nice design of the front page.
Posted by DaveH at January 3, 2006 9:43 PM