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CNN Live Today

Rescue Teams Racing Clock and Rising Water

Aired July 25, 2002 - 11:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Rescue teams are racing the clock and rising water today. They're trying to reach nine miners who are trapped underground.

CNN's Brian Palmer standing by. He is at the scene of the accident this morning, in Somerset, Pennsylvania -- Brian.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Those nine miners are still trapped about 200-300 feet below ground level in a mine that is flooding, but it's important to remember that nine miners escaped last night before the flooding occurred, or as the flooding occurred. So there is some good news. And there are some encouraging signs -- or there were some encouraging signs from those trapped miners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH SBAFFONI, DEEP MINE SAFETY: I would say approximately 3:00 in the morning this morning, we were able to put that 6-inch hole through to the areas we thought the miners would be. And we put that hole through, we had communication with the miners that were down there, but we had tapping on our drill still. So we know somebody was there, and they were alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PALMER: Now that six-inch hole he was referring to was drilled in order to pump air into a pocket where they believe the miners were. So that was the first round of tapping. There was actually also a second round of tapping that happened around 5:30, 6:30 this morning. So several hours ago. There are no signs we've heard of since then. The state authorities tell us there will be a news conference in a few minutes. Hopefully, we will get some new news, some new information about the rescue effort -- Leon.

HARRIS: Thanks, Brian. As a matter of fact, as you were reporting there just a moment ago, I did hear that that press conference is supposed to get under way in about 10 minutes. So you stand by, and we'll get back to you then.

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