Mexico: Search For Underground Trapped Miners Resumed

Mexico: Search For Underground Trapped Miners Resumed
WhatsApp
Facebook
Twitter
Telegram
LinkedIn
Print

The Mexican government has revealed that they are finally in a better position to help in a commencement of a search operation of a flooded coal mine where 10 miners have been trapped for more than a week while offering fresh hope to anguished qrelatives.

It has been reported that several hundred of the rescuers which also included the soldiers and some of the military scuba divers, are taking part in efforts to save the miners missing since August 3 in the northern state of Coahuila.

Read Also: Families Of Trapped Mexican Miners Cry Out Of Desperation

“We have all the conditions to go down there… to search for and rescue” the miners, civil defense national coordinator Laura Velazquez said by video link during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s morning news conference.

But as nightfall later approached, Velazquez sounded a more cautious note, telling reporters it was unclear when the search would begin. A specialist military team had also made several more descents into one of the vertical shafts of El Pinabete mine to remove wood and other debris blocking their way, she said.

But they had not yet reached the floor of the 60-meter (200-foot) deep shaft to access the main tunnels where the workers were believed to be trapped, Velazquez added.

“I cannot even tell you for sure when we’re going to enter the galleries. There’s no way,” she said.

Earlier Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said that the water level in one of the three shafts that rescuers would try to enter has been reduced to 70 centimeters (27 inches), from more than 30 meters initially.

The other two shafts still have 3.9 and 4.7 meters of water.

Authorities consider 1.5 meters to be an acceptable water level to gain access to the crudely constructed El Pinabete mine.

“In any case, we’re going to continue pumping… The process is slow but we don’t want to take any risks,” said Velazquez.

Five miners managed to escape following the initial accident, in which workers carrying out excavation activities hit an adjoining area full of water, but there have been no signs of life from the others.

The government’s announcement on Friday morning had provided a new glimmer of hope for families that have become increasingly frustrated with the pace of the rescue operation.

“With that level (of water) you can already enter — God willing,” David Huerta, the brother-in-law of one of the trapped workers, told AFP.

The 35-year-old said that he himself had dug for coal in small artisanal mines like El Pinabete for nearly 13 years before abandoning the dangerous, grueling work.

At the bottom of the vertical shafts rescuers will reach the underground tunnels where the digging takes place, and where the missing miners are probably located, Huerta said.

“Crews can go in there and search faster,” he added.

 

Africa Daily News, New York

WhatsApp
Facebook
Twitter
Telegram
LinkedIn
Print