April 10
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
NAOMA, W.Va. — Rescue workers found the bodies of four miners missing since Monday's mine explosion, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said early Saturday morning, bringing the death toll to 29 in the USA's worst mining disaster in a generation.
"We did not receive the miracle we prayed for," Manchin said. "Now this journey has ended and now the healing with start."
The death toll makes it the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Ky.
All miners apparently perished in the intense blast and fell where they were working, said Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
VICTIMS' BIOS: 'Looking down from heaven,' note says
SAFETY: Mine had many lapses before explosion
MAP: Mine deaths since 1970
WAYS TO HELP: How to assist mining families
None had a chance to use the emergency air supply units they carry on their belts, he said.
Rescuers had pinned their hopes on the possibility that the missing miners survived the blast and found their way to refuge chambers in the mine, which would have provided the only opportunity for survival in the noxious gases that bedeviled three previous rescue attempts. But none of the rescue chambers had been deployed.
The missing miners had been overlooked Monday in the smoky and dust-filled conditions rescue teams first encountered in their first foray into the mine after the blast, Stricklin said.
Rescue teams will now turn to recovering the 22 bodies still in the mine, an effort that will proceed around the clock until done, Stricklin said. Workers mark the location of each man on a map and the orientation of their heads and feet with flags on the mine floor before carrying them some distance out of the mine, he said. The maps and flags will serve investigators who will begin their work next.
Jim Guidone, a volunteer from the Greensboro, N.C., chapter of the American Red Cross, was at the Massey Energy office where Manchin delivered the news to the family members of the miners had camped during the week's ordeal.
"Even though they were told from the beginning the odds were certainly against survivors, when word finally came it was very emotional," Guidone said. "There was no anger."
Manchin, his voice cracking, said: "It was hard. We'd been there four or five days and they wanted to take their loved ones home with them."
Three more funerals are planned this weekend for the last of seven miners already pulled from Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch mine in Coalmont. Four were buried Friday.
Once the bodies are removed, state and federal investigators will collect records from Massey energy, Stricklin said. They will look for any trends of dangerous conditions that should have been red flags.
Miners' equipment will be tested to see if any recorded dangerous levels of explosive gases before the blast. Every piece of mine wiring and machinery in the blast area will checked and mapped to pinpoint where the blast detonated and if an electrical connection could have sparked the explosion.
The mine could be closed for up to six months while investigators do their work and damage from the blast is repaired, he said.
"I'm sorry that we didn't have a chance to rescue the miners," Stricklin said. "If anything good comes of this it will be lessons learned and maybe regulations to prevent this from happening again."
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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-10-missing-miners-found-dead_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomNation-TopStories+%28News+-+Nation+-+Top+Stories%29
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
NAOMA, W.Va. — Rescue workers found the bodies of four miners missing since Monday's mine explosion, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said early Saturday morning, bringing the death toll to 29 in the USA's worst mining disaster in a generation.
"We did not receive the miracle we prayed for," Manchin said. "Now this journey has ended and now the healing with start."
The death toll makes it the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Ky.
All miners apparently perished in the intense blast and fell where they were working, said Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
VICTIMS' BIOS: 'Looking down from heaven,' note says
SAFETY: Mine had many lapses before explosion
MAP: Mine deaths since 1970
WAYS TO HELP: How to assist mining families
None had a chance to use the emergency air supply units they carry on their belts, he said.
Rescuers had pinned their hopes on the possibility that the missing miners survived the blast and found their way to refuge chambers in the mine, which would have provided the only opportunity for survival in the noxious gases that bedeviled three previous rescue attempts. But none of the rescue chambers had been deployed.
The missing miners had been overlooked Monday in the smoky and dust-filled conditions rescue teams first encountered in their first foray into the mine after the blast, Stricklin said.
Rescue teams will now turn to recovering the 22 bodies still in the mine, an effort that will proceed around the clock until done, Stricklin said. Workers mark the location of each man on a map and the orientation of their heads and feet with flags on the mine floor before carrying them some distance out of the mine, he said. The maps and flags will serve investigators who will begin their work next.
Jim Guidone, a volunteer from the Greensboro, N.C., chapter of the American Red Cross, was at the Massey Energy office where Manchin delivered the news to the family members of the miners had camped during the week's ordeal.
"Even though they were told from the beginning the odds were certainly against survivors, when word finally came it was very emotional," Guidone said. "There was no anger."
Manchin, his voice cracking, said: "It was hard. We'd been there four or five days and they wanted to take their loved ones home with them."
Three more funerals are planned this weekend for the last of seven miners already pulled from Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch mine in Coalmont. Four were buried Friday.
Once the bodies are removed, state and federal investigators will collect records from Massey energy, Stricklin said. They will look for any trends of dangerous conditions that should have been red flags.
Miners' equipment will be tested to see if any recorded dangerous levels of explosive gases before the blast. Every piece of mine wiring and machinery in the blast area will checked and mapped to pinpoint where the blast detonated and if an electrical connection could have sparked the explosion.
The mine could be closed for up to six months while investigators do their work and damage from the blast is repaired, he said.
"I'm sorry that we didn't have a chance to rescue the miners," Stricklin said. "If anything good comes of this it will be lessons learned and maybe regulations to prevent this from happening again."
Yahoo! Buzz
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-10-missing-miners-found-dead_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomNation-TopStories+%28News+-+Nation+-+Top+Stories%29
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