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American Morning

Interview with 'Jake' Miller, Glenn Kerr

Aired July 30, 2002 - 07:22   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the last of the nine rescued miners expected to be released from the hospital, possibly later today. There's Paula. Good morning.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Isn't that amazing how I do that?

HEMMER: You look great.

ZAHN: And I can sit there and my mouth doesn't move and you're talking.

HEMMER: That's right.

ZAHN: All right, Bill. It's all yours.

HEMMER: We are puppets here.

ZAHN: Do you want to start at the top there so people understand what you were talking about?

HEMMER: We, no, the investigation is going to continue, we all know that, into that nearly fatal accident. Fortunately nothing, nothing prevented the nine from saving virtually their own lives this past weekend.

Right now in Pennsylvania, of the 56 working mines, 34 are close to abandoned mines and most of those mines are full of water just like the ones that miners accidentally breached last Wednesday.

About an hour's drive north of Somerset in Patton, Pennsylvania, Jeff Flock is standing by for a bit of a tour this morning -- Jeff, good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

I can tell you, in fact, it's a little closer to two hours. We made the trip this morning. It was one of my goals when we started on this story to really get down in a mine and see what they were up against.

Perhaps you can see, we are inside what was an abandoned mine called the Chess Creek Number One Mine. And we came down here to try to get some sense of what it was like. And I want to take you back now into a cut, into an area where it's very similar to what the nine men were up against.

This is now a mine which you can come and take a tour of. And now we're going to see if we can't get up underneath here. We are deep, by the way, Bill, Paula. We're about 500 feet down. You know, they drilled to about 240 feet down to get those men out. We are about 500 feet down and about 1,000 feet in. And if I can, I'm not really built like a miner, am I there, Jake?

ELVIN "JAKE" MILLER, RETIRED MINER: You're not. No, it takes a little bit of in it in your blood to be a miner, I guess.

FLOCK: Jake Miller. We are in an area now that, we're crouching down here because this is about what these guys were up against in terms of the height of the space.

MILLER: Yes, down there they was in four feet high and about 14 or 15 feet wide. This place, the area right here is about 14 feet wide and it's four feet high. You notice if you can kneel down like this, I'm six foot tall. I can't straighten my head up because it hits the roof. So that's what...

FLOCK: This is what they've been up against, right?

MILLER: ... that's the kind of conditions they were in down there, the same as this. It's four feet high.

FLOCK: And obviously they were in water, very damp conditions.

MILLER: Yes.

FLOCK: So what do you do when you're like that?

MILLER: OK, whenever you work in the coal mines it's always, this bottom is always wet, damp and dirty. And if you get a break and you want to sit down you go and sit down there, you're going to get your butt wet. So a lot of the guys name this hammer a third leg. So you go like this with it. Now you sat on it like that. The upholstery is not very good on your butt, but at least it keeps it dry and you're up out of the water.

FLOCK: I hear you. Now, let me see what I'm seeing over here. If I can see past you, John, are you able to get past him maybe -- if we train some light back there. Now, we've got a heck of a lot more light than, of course, they had down there and we can see what it looks like.

Again, this is about the same width and you've got timbers up in here which, of course, they didn't have. This is an old mine and that's the way you used to do it, with these timbers, correct?

MILLER: Yes. Yes. See, the mines now, today, technology, they put bolts in the roof to hold the roof up. They don't have these timbers in here no more.

FLOCK: Got you. And in terms of what these guys are going through, Glenn, I've got to ask you, this very confined situation, you talked about not really freaking out about anything down here, but that's what they did, correct?

GLENN KERR, SCHOOL TEACHER: Well, I imagine anybody would be a little bit apprehensive, you know, if the water was that high in there. But one thing you've got to remember in the mines, if you get excited, you're going to do something stupid and get yourself killed. So you've got to try maintain your composure as much as you can.

FLOCK: And, of course, that's what they didn't do.

I want to do one thing and show our viewers what it's sort of like and perhaps go ahead and kick our camera lights off, because we brought some additional lights back down in here and I just want to give them a real sense of what these guys were looking like. And is it possible for you to turn one of your cap lights off maybe?

I don't know if, Glenn, if you can. That way you've just gone the one light.

MILLER: Yes, OK. Whenever those guys are in there, this is all the light they have. This thing on my helmet, it shines pretty good. I mean you can shine it around and it shines pretty good. And this here other thing is what they call a methane approved flame safety light. It checks for methane gas and black damp.

FLOCK: And, of course, they wouldn't have had that because that would have been knocked over by the flood, right? Would they have had any other...

MILLER: Wherever -- like a boss or an operator, this is on his belt. This is part of his gear. He carries this wherever he goes.

FLOCK: I've got you.

MILLER: He always has it on his belt.

FLOCK: OK, now one more time the lights on, if you would, guys, because I want to just look at the sides. What I'm seeing here, I'm looking at coal here, is that correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FLOCK: And this is just -- whoa, jeez, I've got more than I need here, don't I?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FLOCK: And this is obviously old -- this is the coal seam in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that...

FLOCK: And why would this have been left here?

MILLER: That's the coal seam there. Now, that there is what they call a block of coal or a stump or a pillar. That stump there...

FLOCK: It holds up the ceiling.

MILLER: Yes. It's about a 75 foot square and it holds up the rock above you.

FLOCK: Jake, Glenn, I appreciate it. We very much appreciate this tour.

Again, 1,000 feet in and about 500 feet down, this is something like they were up against. Of course, we can go out pretty easy.

HEMMER: Wow.

FLOCK: They couldn't -- Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Amazing stuff.

Jeff, hang on there, OK, in Pennsylvania? We're going to come back to you in a couple of minutes.

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