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CNN Live Today
Mine Rescue Miracle
Aired July 29, 2002 - 10:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: First up this hour, our top story, the mine rescue at Quecreek.
Our Bill Hemmer at standing by now in Somerset, Pennsylvania, a community that's celebrating nine lives this morning.
Hi -- Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Leon, good morning once again.
The headlines in the local newspaper say it all. Pittsburgh is about 55 miles northwest of our location here. The "Post-Gazette" today: "Help, help, please get us out." That's the banner headline quote from one of the nine miners, again, submerged for 77 hours subterranean.
Also, the "Daily American," which is the county newspaper here in Somerset, its headline: "Nine for nine," with two colorful pictures located below from the images early, and we do mean early Sunday morning here in southwestern Pennsylvania.
You know, we just heard from the doctors a short time ago. At least two of the three still hospitalized, we are told, two will be out and released later today. But it's going to be three hours from now when all three miners, we do anticipate, will brief reporters on that ordeal, again, three-and-a-half days and removed in the early morning hours of Sunday morning.
The doctors tell us they are in good condition, adjusting well, and they say they made enormously smart decisions when they were 240 feet below the earth's surface. No significant trauma, we are told, but over time, doctors want to monitor the psychological effects, something they cannot measure right now, but certainly in the weeks and months and even years to come, they will continue to monitor that.
As we await the miners in three hours from now, we want to take you back to yesterday, because Blaine Mayhugh is one of the miners who came before cameras, and he sat there with his wife at his side, stood there essentially, telling his story. And one part of his story, Leon, that he relayed to everybody yesterday was the lowest point that he felt in that three-and-a-half-day period. Listen to how he described his decision-making process, and what he wanted to do so his family remembers him -- here is Mayhugh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLAINE MAYHUGH, RESCUED MINER: It was Thursday around 12:00 noon, and the water started rising, and we was running out of room. So I asked the boss if he had a pen, and he knew what for. I said, well, I want to write my wife and kids, you know, to tell them I love them, and you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: I tell you what, you listen to some of these stories and you just get absolute chills, time and time again, the courageous efforts that we saw, not only below ground, but also above ground, too.
And everyone who talks about this, Leon, talks about the team effort, well over 200 rescue workers, but outside of that, the way the community pulled together.
We talked with Margie Lyons two hours ago. Margie is a very good friend of the Mayhughs. She helped baby-sit their two young children at home while Leslie Mayhugh, the wife of Blaine, was out at the site for four days running, nonstop virtually, watching the rescue effort unfold. Margie Lyons tells us that she never lost hope -- here is her talking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARGIE LYONS, FRIEND OF RESCUED MINER: I honestly didn't. I had a lot of people say to me, you know, they are not going to come out, there is no chance. And I said, you know what? I am not giving up hope, I said, until I know -- until someone comes out and tells me otherwise, I said, I won't give up hope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: You saw her there with her three children. Her daughter is best friends with Kelsey Mayhugh (ph). They are both 7 years of age, and they kept each other very close company throughout ordeal.
I asked Margie, what do you tell children when nine miners, nine grown men, are trapped below the earth? And she said, you know, the whole time I just thought I would treat them with honest answers. When they came at me with questions, I would just tell them and answer those questions the best way I could.
An amazing story here in Pennsylvania, and certainly, Leon, as we go forward, there's going to be a massive investigation as to how these maps could be so inaccurate, and also how the miners could puncture through an old mine that had not been mined since dating back to the 1950s. All questions going forward now as this community, again, continues to recover, and there are smiles all around, but as the industry starts to get back on its feet, these are the answers the governor is really pushing for as we go forward.
Again, 1:00 Eastern Time, three hours from now, we hope to hear from three of those men on their ordeal and their story below the earth. Leon, great story here in Pennsylvania, I've got to tell you.
HARRIS: Oh, yes, but of course, Bill. And you can -- I have to think it would be a heck of a scarier story if this had happened before. It's amazing to find out how badly off these maps were. This kind of thing could have happened a ton of times before.
HEMMER: Yes.
HARRIS: And luckily, it has not. But what I am curious about is, you know, I keep hearing people saying that these miners, they pretty much saved their own lives, because of the training that they have gotten and the different tactics that they used to maintain their own body heat and what-not. What you learned about the kind of training these men receive?
HEMMER: Yes, well, they go through extensive training. In fact, some of the local editors here in the local newspapers talked about how just a few months ago that they printed all of the rules and regulations and the training exercises these men undergo to make sure they stay smart underground. And when I say "smart," so many people come back, Leon, and say these men took such good care in the decisions they made, that's what helped them to save their own lives.
In addition to that, the rescue efforts, certainly trying to pump out that water and getting that air hole down there to make sure they stay warm and get oxygen. All of these factors came together in some sort of kaleidoscope of recovery that turned out, in the end, very successful.
Leon, you see that yellow cage right that? That's been used quite often in a number of different scenarios here over the years. But the last successful use of that yellow cage was 1972. Thirty years later, it's used again, and what a great ending it is here in Pennsylvania -- Leon.
HARRIS: Yes, a good point. I heard one of the rescue workers talking yesterday, saying that he has been doing this stuff for 20 years, he had never seen a situation where they get all men out alive.
HEMMER: Yes, that's so true.
HARRIS: Boy, amazing story.
HEMMER: Yes, that's right, I have heard that a lot.
HARRIS: Thanks, Bill -- Bill Hemmer reporting live for us...
HEMMER: You've got it, Leon.
HARRIS: ... from Somerset, Pennsylvania. We'll check back with you later on, buddy.
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