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American Morning

Mine Disaster Kills 25; New U.S. Nuke Strategy; Twenty Five Killed in West Virginia Mine Explosion; Benny Willingham's Family Mourning His Loss

Aired April 06, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: We're coming up on 8:00 here in New York. Good morning to you. It's Tuesday, April 6th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

John joins us once again live from West Virginia this morning for a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING with the latest on the mine explosion in West Virginia.

Good morning, John.

ROBERTS: Good morning to you, Kiran.

It's just -- it's a devastating morning here in Raleigh County, West Virginia. The Upper Big Branch mining disaster -- 25 miners known dead at this point, another four are still missing.

And rescue operations have been suspended. The rescuers were in the mine until about 2:30 this morning. They had gone in. They found high methane levels and the levels started to peter out a little bit.

And they got back into an area of the mine where they thought that these remaining four miners might be. And the methane levels basically went through the roof. So, they had to pull out.

Now, the mining operation is in the process of drilling a bore hole through 1,200 to 14,000 feet of solid rock to try to get a ventilation shaft down on that mine so that they can evacuate the methane and then allow the rescuers to go back in. But that process could take as much as two days.

And you can imagine, you have the families of all of those miners wondering and waiting. What is going on with them? Are they dead? Are they alive? They know that 25 of their loved ones colleagues were found dead. What will be the story for them?

Sheri McGraw is with the Central West Virginia chapter of the Red Cross. She spent most of the night with the members of the families up there on the mine property.

Sheri, thanks so much for being with us. Set the scene for us, kind of what is the area that the family members are like in, and how many people are there, what questions are they asking?

SHERI MCGRAW, CENTRAL W. VA. RED CROSS: Well, last night they had gathered in a small building that was called a mine office. There were some tables set up and some food laid out and, you know, the mood at first was hopeful. You know, now, there was sadness.

ROBERTS: This was earlier in the evening.

MCGRAW: Yes, this was earlier in the evening when, you know, a few of the miners had already been discovered. So, there was sadness because of that. There was still hope. And it was just -- you know, every minute felt like an hour sitting there with those families.

And they're taking -- are stealing glances at the door, waiting for the mine officials to come back in and tell them anything that they can about their -- about their families, their loved ones. So, when the announcement is finally made, that the death toll was up to 25. It was literally like a bolt of lightning went through that room. It was the most painful thing I've ever witnessed.

ROBERTS: I can't imagine. The early reports of death sort of late in the afternoon were seven and then it jumped to 12 and then I remember about midnight, we were driving up here listening to CNN on the satellite radio, and we heard the figure of 25. And I know how we felt when we heard that number. I can't imagine how these people felt.

MCGRAW: That's when the first screams went out, when they said 25. And it seemed at that point that everybody had just resigned themselves to the fact there was no hope left. And I think -- that has to do with the fact that these people are so close in so many ways, that they were just feeling the pain of each other and, you know, and that hope. There really wasn't even room for hope to get in there at that point. There was just so much grief being shared in that room.

ROBERTS: You know, you drive up Coal River Road which we did coming up toward the mine and it is just little mining town after little mining town. And that is the main industry here. There are a couple of convenience stores and maybe a grocery and a gas station. But everybody else works in the mining industry.

So, for a tragedy like this to happen, and if these other four miners don't make it, this is going to be the worst accident in at least 30 years. What does it do to this area?

MCGRAW: Well, you know, these folks are stoic and they are strong. I heard a momma tell her surviving son today, who came out of the mine alive, "I don't ever want you to go back in that mine again." And he says, "But, Momma, this is what I do, this is what I do."

So, chances are, they'll go back down in the mines at some point. The families will. The generations will.

ROBERTS: It's kind of a deal that they make that this is what they do to make their living. This is what they do to earn their keep. And --

MCGRAW: And they are tough people and it's a tough job. And it's a good living for these folks, long hours. But they do it for their families.

ROBERTS: Governor Manchin passed along the story of three members of the same family who were killed. And it is -- it's one of those classic mining families. The father had been working the early day shift. He was coming out. His son was going in, along with his nephew and the father's brother.

And just as he was taking off his shirt, that's when the blast happened, and it literally blew his shirt off and took the lives of his brother, his son, and his nephew.

MCGRAW: And, you know, I spent a lot of time with that family last night. And this was before, this was, you know, when the survivor had come out, but the three had not yet been pronounced dead.

And, you know, the family was just exhausted. They wanted to have hope. They wanted to have faith. But they were so tired at that point, having so many family members in that mine; that they really just did not know what to think.

ROBERTS: We were thinking about this on the way up. If you are -- if you are the mother in the family, and your husband and your sons are going off and they are working in the coal mines and they are bringing home the bacon, basically, and they perish in a disaster like this. There's not much else around here to do. What do those people do?

MCGRAW: Well, you know --

ROBERTS: The people who are left behind. What do they do?

MCGRAW: The mines will take care of them financially. But I heard another women who when she found out her husband had died, I watched her and her friends are hugging her and she said, "Who's going to take care of me now? Who's going to take care of me?" And her friends were hugging her saying, "We'll take care of you, we'll take care of you."

So, you know, financially, I think the mines will help. But you're right. I mean, this is -- this is life here. And when you take that piece off the plate, you know, there's very little left except love.

ROBERTS: Sheri McGraw, it's great work that you do --

MCGRAW: Thanks.

ROBERTS: -- and spending time with the families and helping any way you can. We thank you for coming on with us this morning.

MCGRAW: Thanks for having me.

ROBERTS: Much appreciate it.

Let's send it back to New York now. Here's Kiran.

CHETRY: John, thanks.

Well, in just a few hours, President Obama is going to be announcing a big change in U.S. nuclear policy. The new strategy will call for a halt to the development of any new nuclear weapons. It also limits the conditions under which the existing nuclear arsenal would be deployed.

For the latest on this story, we bring in our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

So, Barbara, break it down for us. Why is this significant and why does this announcement also have, you know, critics coming out already?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it really doesn't get more serious, does it, than the issue of nuclear weapons here in the Pentagon and with the U.S. military.

About four hours from now, we will have an extraordinary press conference here. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen -- all to lay out this so-called Nuclear Posture Review. This is now the framework for U.S. nuclear policy for the coming decades -- all of this underpinning President Obama's goal to reduce the world's reliance on nuclear weapons.

Now, let's take a look at some of the details to break it down. First, as you say, Kiran, it will call for a halt in the development of new nuclear weapons. Even as the ones the U.S. has wear out over time, no new nukes. It will instead extend the life of existing warheads because if you are going to have warheads, you must work on them, of course, to make sure they are reliable and safe.

There will be a very interesting fundamental shift here, which is that the U.S. is not going to talk anymore about whether it goes with nuclear weapons as a first strike policy. It basically says that there will be an exception for nuclear states. No use of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states, the exception being any country that has violated the nonproliferation treaty.

In other words, the bottom line here is Iran still could be on the target list. They are believed not to be in compliance with the nonproliferation treaty. Therefore, there's no exception. They could be targeted under this new policy.

Now, of course, President Obama goes to Europe at the end of the week to sign a new nuclear treaty with the Russians. That's another key step.

This is likely all going to be the subject of some debate for years to come. Critics say the U.S. may be backing away too much from nuclear weapons. Others say, this is what we have to do, that nuclear weapons truly are obsolete in the modern world -- Kiran.

CHETRY: And, Barbara, what kind of reaction is the plan getting this morning?

STARR: Well, you know, I think the military is looking at this as, of course, complete support for the president's policy. But there is a fundamental issue for the military here. There is a lot of nuclear infrastructure, billions of dollars still being spent to support the nuclear weapons that the U.S. has. That's a program that has to be kept up for the simple security and safety of nuclear weapons, and Iran still lurks over the horizon.

You can talk all you want about nuclear weapons being obsolete and moving away from any reliance on nuclear weapons, but as long as Iran is hanging out there as the unanswered question, there's likely to be a lot of controversy about this, Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Barbara Starr following the story for us and we'll hear more today, of course, when that announcement happens -- thanks, Barbara.

STARR: Sure.

CHETRY: Checking our other stories this morning.

The chief of staff of the Republican National Committee has stepped down. In an e-mail, RNC Chairman Michael Steele told members that he accepts Ken McKay's resignation and to reassure hardworking patriots who donate to the party. The RNC has been under fire over $1,900 that was spent by a party donor and vendor at a sex-themed Hollywood nightclub.

And Duke survives a thriller, beating Butler, 61-59 in the NCAA championship game last night. The underdog Bulldogs gave Duke all they could handle. The game actually came down of that last second half-court heave by Butler that just missed. Butler would have won if it made it. It is Duke's fourth national men's basketball title, their first since 2001.

One person I know who was up late watching that game -- well, up late for our standards -- is Rob Marciano. He has a check of the weather forecast for us.

That was almost the Cinderella story with Butler, huh?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was a tough game it turned out for sure. But they're the real deal, Butler -- amazing coach, amazing team. And they played hard right through the end. It was really one of the most fascinating championship games I've ever seen.

Hey, listen, you got some storms heading to Chicago. Check it out on the radar scope here. These are severe, we got some walnut- size hail heading through Aurora and motoring to the east at 60 miles an hour. So, Chicago up through Waukegan, you're going to get hit here in about 20 minutes. So, you just either delay or speed up your departure in the next few minutes here.

Also, little showers and a couple of thunderstorms are rolling across the Northeast. But these aren't going to amount to much unless you're in Upstate New York. The severe weather threat is going to be across Pennsylvania, to southern parts of the Great Lakes and all the way down through the Texas plains. And that will be the same deal like we saw yesterday.

Also, the same deal -- cold out west and hot out east. Temperatures in Atlanta may reach record levels, near 90; near 90 expected in D.C., that would be a record; 78 degrees is expected in New York City.

We'll talk a little bit more about this weather, in about 30 minutes.

Kiran, back to you.

CHETRY: Wow. Ninety degrees in Atlanta, look at, you guys.

All right. Rob, thanks so much.

MARCIANO: Thanks (ph).

CHETRY: Well, still ahead, how does the rescue attempt proceed in West Virginia at the mine? We're going to have more on what is going on there as they painstakingly try to rescue four miners still believed trapped.

John Roberts is live at the scene. We're going to check in with him in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: We're back outside the Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County in West Virginia, continuing coverage of the mining disaster at the Upper Big Ranch mine.

And we're here with the families (AUDIO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

ROBERTS: Thanks for joining us this morning, folks.

You know, Michelle, you've got a photograph. Why don't you hold it up so we can see it? Tell us a little bit about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was just one of a kind, a hardworking family man, like his kin. His grandbabies were his life.

(INAUDIBLE)

CHETRY: We really apologize. We have to leave it there but we were unable to hear the families because of a small audio issue. Which we are going to correct and we're going to check back in with John in West Virginia. As the family and friends tell their heartbreaking stories about what happened to their loved ones at that mine. We are going to take a quick break. We are also going to be minding your business when we come back.

Markets approaching some milestones. The Dow actually flirting with 11,000. Oil also reaching an 18-month high. Christine Romans tells us what it means for us. Coming up. Sixteen minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back for the most news in the morning. Nineteen minutes past the hour right now. Christine Romans is minding your business. Don't look now but the Dow is up, nearing, what 12,000?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, 11,000. I know, can you believe that?

CHETRY: It's usually kind of not optimistic because it's going to get 12.

ROMANS: Yes, and I have had other people, you know, I have had people on this program would said, you know, it has to go to 14,000 and there are others would say, you know, it's going to have a big retest, a 30 percent decline again before -- no one knows where it is going to go next. I can only tell you what it is doing right now. And the Dow knocking on the door yesterday of 11,000. We haven't seen that since end of September, 2008. Remember 2008? Big old financial crisis gripping the world and actually starting to shut down parts of the economy.

That's what it looks like, this rebound. The Dow is up more than 60 percent since the 12-year lows hit last March. Which means, if you had the fortitude to put in maybe a few thousand dollars at the lows, you would have a very nice profit. But our polling still shows that most people still feel like the economy is not working in their direction. Maybe that's because most people didn't have $10,000 to throw in the market at the lows, right? Oil prices are also rising. Almost a year and a half high there for oil prices. Oil prices are up 24 percent in just two months. That means that gas prices are also rising. So, that's how you are feeling. The oil price rise.

Why is this happening? We're having huge industrial demand in China. Also, from the United States. You have signs of life in the economies after flat line for a couple of years. So, many people are saying these markets are just a response to recovery. Others are saying, there is so much global money from government that has been pushed in that you might be creating other bubbles. Again, no one is going to know but this is just what's happening and what they are talking about. Futures are actually down a little bit this morning. So, you could see a little bit of a pullback from that attack on the 11,000 level. But three quick things I want to tell you about.

Kiran, this is what's so incredibly important whenever we go on television and start talking about how markets are up. A lot of you don't feel it. The things that most people feel about money, jobs, housing and gas prices, those are things that aren't going in your direction necessarily and haven't recovered yet. And so, that's why there is this big disconnect between what you are seeing in these markets that are going up and what you are feeling in your own personal economy.

CHETRY: It is tough to do but if you take the long view, I mean, companies must be feeling better. Their stock is rising. Are they going to start hiring? Because that's when we may see a turn around.

ROMANS: Corporate profits are doing better. Corporate profits are what drive stocks. Not the job market.

In some cases, the reason why corporate profits are up, because they've cut so many of your jobs and you are working so much harder and their productivity. You know, they've made so many cutbacks. There is a minority view out there that they cut too much and if the economy really goes gang busters in the next couple of years, they're going to quickly go back and start hiring. Not everybody thinks that but some people do think that.

CHETRY: All right. Christine Romans for us this morning. Minding your business. Thanks.

And we are going to head back out to John Roberts in West Virginia. We were having some problems with the microphone earlier. We got that cleared up. Hey, John.

ROBERTS: Hey, Kiran. Thanks so much. I do think we've got our technical problems cleared up. So, I just don't know how much you heard in the beginning. So, let me start all over again.

This is the family of Benny Willingham, he was one of the 25 miners who perished yesterday in the accident. We've got family members here. His granddaughter, Tiffany, is with us here as well as his daughter Michelle and his sister Jeannie and her husband Bobby. Gary, he's the pastor of the church where he is a deacon. And we got Nick over here who is his nephew and Sheila as well.

So, again, Michelle, let me start with you. And tell me a little bit about Benny and you have a photograph of him here as well.

MICHELLE, BENNY WILLINGHAM'S DAUGHTER: Yes. Benny, there is only one Benny. He was just one kind of a dad, grandfather. He lived for us. He lived for the babies.

ROBERTS: A terrible, terrible time. I can't imagine what you are going through. This sudden loss. This is your mommy here as well. All right? And Jeannie, you told me that she hasn't even been talked to by the company yet?

JEANNIE, BENNY WILLINGHAM'S SISTER: No, sir. No, still sitting at home waiting for someone to call and tell her.

ROBERTS: You and your husband Bobby were up at the mine last night. Tell me a little bit about that.

JEANNIE: We arrived and my husband knew a gentleman there. And he asked him to find out about my brother and he went in and found out that he had died.

ROBERTS: When did you find that out?

JEANNIE: Maybe about 8:00 last night. He was such a good man. I mean, I know, everybody thinks that about their loved ones but Benny truly was a wonderful man.

ROBERTS: You know, the one thing the we hear again and again and again, Michelle, from everyone we talk to here is just how tightly knit this mining community is, how everybody knows everybody else. Everybody works with everybody else. You have multiple family members working in the mines. What is this community like?

MICHELLE: It's a good community, tight. We look after each other. We support each other.

ROBERTS: And, so, what will you do now?

MICHELLE: Just try to take it one day at a time.

ROBERTS: What is it like to live in this life knowing that everyday, loved ones like your grandfather go down so deep under the ground and every day, to some degree, is a roll of the dice?

TIFFANY, BENNY WILLINGHAM'S GRANDDAUGHTER: It's really scary. It's really, really scary. My step dad also does that. And this is just a wakeup call to me. I seen it happened before but I never imagined I would be here today telling my story about it.

ROBERTS: Jean, how long has he been a miner? Was his the typical story?

JEANNIE: More than 30 years.

ROBERTS: So, was it right out of high school or when did he go down into the mines?

JEANNIE: Not long after high school. Not long after high school. And he loved it. And he was a very, very hard worker. And he loved the Lord and he said in church the other day, he said, the Lord -- he thanked the Lord for saving his soul and he thanked him for watching over him in the mines for over 30 years and he said, if he takes me tomorrow, I've had a good life.

ROBERTS: Michelle, what is it that you want to know today from the Mining Company?

MICHELLE: We want to know, excuse me, why we have not been contacted. No one from Massey has called my mother or any of us children or his mother. He still has a mother that is home grieving. We don't know where my dad's body is at. We want some answers and we want them today. We want answers. We are very upset.

ROBERTS: And what about the accident, itself? You know, we have heard of this massive explosion of either methane gas or a combination of methane gas and coal dust. Have you received any answers at all from Massey mining?

JEANNIE: No, nothing at all.

BOBBY, JEAN'S HUSBAND: No contact whatsoever.

JEANNIE: No one.

ROBERTS: Well, you were up there, as we said, at the mine yesterday.

BOBBY: Yes.

ROBERTS: What were company officials telling you?

JEANNIE: We didn't see any.

BOBBY: The only company official we saw was the Human Resource Director. She is from the same community that Benny and his families from. And she consoled Jeannie. And she one who told Jeannie, he was deceased. But as far as company officials, no one has contacted anyone. You know, going in the mines as a miner that those things can happen. It is just good to have your life in order when you go in here and Benny did.

ROBERTS: He had his life in order?

BOBBY: Oh, yes.

JEANNIE: Yes.

ROBERTS: So, he almost knew that everyday when he went into the mine, there was a chance he was not going to come out?

JEANNIE: Yes.

ROBERTS: How do you live with that as a family?

NICK, BENNY WILLINGHAM'S NEPHEW: Generations deep. My grandfather worked in the mines, uncles, I have been in the mines myself. I worked in the industry, not underground. But I do go underground on occasion. It's just that coal mining gets in your blood. And the camaraderie, it is just like a sports team. I mean, it's just -- there is no love like the love among workers in coal mines.

ROBERTS: You know, Tiffany, grandfathers can be such an important figure in the young person's life. Particularly, for young woman's life. What kind of a figure was your grandfather in your life?

TIFFANY: I didn't have a dad. My grandfather filled that role.

ROBERTS: You didn't have a dad. He filled that role?

TIFFANY: My dad walked out on me and my mom. My brother and my papa stepped right up. I never thought of him once as a grandpa. He was my dad.

ROBERTS: What did your grand dad do with you that made him so special?

TIFFANY: He spoiled me. Anything I want, his little girl got it.

ROBERTS: Did he teach you too? Did he teach you about life?

TIFFANY: Oh, yes, he thought me everything from learning how to tie my shoes, to driving, to learning the game about boys. He was always there to listen to my problems whenever I had them.

ROBERTS: So, Michelle, what will you do now in these coming hours?

TIFFANY: Go home, sit with my mom, take care of her and just wait to find out where he is at, when he is going to be returning home. So, we can go on planning for the days ahead.

ROBERTS: And if you had the chance, and I know that the emotions are running high right now. If you had the chance to speak with officials from the Mining Company, what would you say to them this morning?

MICHELLE: What happened to the phone call? We're still waiting. My mom is still home waiting by the phone.

ROBERTS: That's the most important thing right now.

MICHELLE: Yes.

ROBERTS: And where is the body? We have no idea where he is at. We want his belongings. No one will return our calls. We have tried and tried.

ROBERTS: Well, hopefully, that phone call will be coming soon and certainly, we are all praying for the memory of Benny.

MICHELLE: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Benny Willingham, 61 years old, miner killed in yesterday's explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine. Folks, thanks so much for being with us. I know how difficult this time is -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. John, thanks so much for that interview and for all of them for being so candid at their time of such great loss. We are going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about why this may have happened. Davitt Mcateer, the Former Director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration discussing the risks at this mine in particular. And the checkered safety record of the company that owns it. It is 30 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour -- time for a look at your top stories this morning.

President Obama is set to announce a major shift in U.S. nuclear weapons strategy. His plan is to halt the development of any new weapons and to limit how the existing weapons arsenal will be used. The announcement comes two days before the president will sign a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia that reduces both countries missile stockpiles.

A chase happening on the high seas. South Korea says that a navy destroyer has caught 77 to an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates as it was headed from Iraq to the U.S. It's carrying a crew of five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos along with $160 million in crude oil.

And a developing story this morning, the number of dead doubling overnight. Twenty-five miners are now confirmed killed in a West Virginia mine explosion. Four miners are still missing.

And the search has been suspended for now as they wait to drill boring holes into parts of the mine and try to clear some of the dangerous methane gas. That's when they are going to resume the church.

It is now considered the worst mine disaster in the U.S. in 25 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

REP. NICK J. RAHALL (D), WEST VIRGINIA: It's unfortunate that every mine safety law we have on the books today has been written with the blood of our coal miners.

KEVIN STRICKLIN, U.S. MINE SAFETY & HEALH ADMINISTRATION: I think it is a dire situation but I do think it is a rescue operation. It will be that way until we confirm that these four additional people are not living.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

CHETRY: Governor Joe Manchin also says that rescuers began drilling these three 1,200-foot holes to vent methane and carbon monoxide from the mines so that search teams can go back in. They estimated around 6:00 this morning that it would take 12 hours. Worst-case scenario, one safety official says it may take two days to complete.

Right now, we're going to head back to John, who is there at the command center in West Virginia.

Hey, John.

ROBERTS: And so many sad stories here, this morning, Kiran, as we talk to the family of Benny Willingham just a couple of minutes ago. It just -- it really tears at your heart to think that someone was taken so quickly from you in such a violent way as well. And they're asking questions, not only where is the company in terms of contacting them, but what happened yesterday. And it's a puzzle that people are trying to put together the pieces of.

Davitt McAteer was the lead investigator on the Sago mining disaster. He's also the former head of MSHA -- which is the Mine Safety and Health Administration. He's in Washington and he joins us now.

Davitt, thanks so much for being with us.

What do you make of what you've heard so far about the Upper Big Branch mining disaster?

DAVITT MCATEER, FORMER DIRECTOR, MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: John, I think there are some problems that the disaster points out. The fact that the size of the explosion was so large suggests that there was an accumulation of methane which shouldn't be allowed to accumulate in that kind of volume. The fact that the families weren't notified -- this was the difficulty with the Sago accident, with the Aracoma Alma accident and accident with this same company, that they didn't have a good system in place to notify the families and to get in-touch with the families. We unfortunately haven't learned our lesson from that standpoint.

The other points of this, the difficulty we have here was, at this mine, they had a doubling of the number of citations from 2008 to 2009, and a doubling or a tripling of the penalties. What that suggests to you, just on the face of it, is that there were problems here and that those problems are not being addressed.

I think the unfortunate thing is that this company has had a very, very checkered record in terms of safety and health. They paid the largest penalty under the Mine Safety Law. For the Aracoma Alma accident, $2.5 million in criminal and the remainder of $4 million- plus penalty in for the total of $4 million in the civil -- so, that you have a company that has a record that is very difficult, to say the least.

And I think the question is: is this company -- are they living up to the expectations that they need to have in terms of these families?

ROBERTS: And, I think, potentially as well, Davitt, another question people maybe asking based upon what you just said is: why was this company still mining?

MCATEER: Well, that's exactly right. There are state and federal inspectors in this mine on a monthly basis, or every quarterly basis at least. And where are -- where are the checks and balances? Where are the kind of numbers?

Unfortunately, some companies -- and this appears to be one -- take the approach that these violations are simply a cost of doing business. It's cheaper for us to mine in an unsafe way or in a way that risks people's lives than it is for us to comply with the statutes, comply with the laws.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: I was going to say, let me come back to what you just said. You said, where are the checks and balances? And I think that may be a fair question to ask.

Where are the checks and balances when a company has more than 400 violations leveled against it last year? One hundred and twenty- two so far this year, 53 during the month of March alone. Some of those violations having to do with its ventilation plan.

And now, we hear, this huge explosion yesterday potentially caused by a buildup of methane gas or methane gas and coal dusts, according to the experts we've been talking about this morning.

Where are the checks and balances? Where is the government in this?

MCATEER: It's a hard question and one that really needs answered. It needs answered correctly and transparently, because we -- you know, we have the inspection system.

We have increased penalties. We have increased inspections for dusts and for gas. And it doesn't appear, at least on the face of it, to have had the desired effect. What's the model and how do we go about doing that.

Unfortunately, we didn't learn the lessons enough from Sago. We didn't learn the completion of those lessons, I should say. For example, in the area of the communications systems, two-way communications was directed to be by the MINER Act put in place. As recently as two weeks ago, 34 mines out of some 415 had a complete system put in place. I don't believe this mine was one of them.

So, we're not getting the kind of conclusion that we need to get to make certain that we can protect these miners. It is such a tragedy to hear those families talk about the lost ones.

ROBERTS: One thing we do know, Davitt, is that this mine had put in place recommendations that came -- new rules that came out of the Sago mining disaster in terms of these rescue chambers, an area where miners could go if there would be some sort of accident in the mine, where they would have these self-contained, self-rescue apparatus, basically a breathing apparatus such as you might see a firefighter use when they go into a burning building, another safety measures in place.

But according to the governor, Governor Joe Manchin, who we talked to earlier this morning, and the, you know, people now from MSHA, the scope, the size of this blast were such that those safety measures were basically rendered ineffective.

MCATEER: That's correct. And I think that really points out a problem that we looked at at Sago and we made some recommendations, but said, when you have these large areas that are abandoned working areas and you seal those areas up and then you have an ignition in those areas, these areas are actually time bombs waiting to be a problem.

And we have not, as a nation, addressed that kind of underlying problem. How should we deal with these? How do we make them either injecting inert materials, ventilating them, et cetera? But we haven't addressed the underlying problem. And that's not just at this mine. That's all the mines across the country where there are large volumes of methane gas in sealed areas.

ROBERTS: So, how difficult would it be to address the problem? Would it be prohibitive as far as cost? Would it be too technologically-involved or would it be a reasonably simple process?

MCATEER: Well, it is complicated because you got -- in the sealed area, methane gas is going to build up over a period of time. And even if you ventilated it, at a certain time, it would still build up again.

The question is, whether we should seal them, whether we should open them up and keep them open so that we can ventilate them the whole time -- and that would be expensive. But if we're going to mine in this country, we need to find a way to deal with that, or do we ventilate them through shafts that we build as we go and capture the gas? Those questions need to be answered.

We raised these questions back at the time of Sago. And we're not getting the kinds of answers to this larger kind of question that has to be answered if we're going to continue to mine in this country. We can mine safely.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: When I talked to the governor earlier today, I asked him about this possible buildup of methane gas and how it potentially could have happened. And he said, well, you know, we are in there. The state is in there all the time monitoring the levels. And if the levels were above where they should have been, we would have shut them down.

Do you have any theories as to how, if indeed, as people are theorizing in massive methane gas explosion how that much gas could have accumulated in the mine in such a short period of time?

MCATEER: Well, remember, the governor was talking about the working sections of the mine, the actual active working sections. I'm saying that those sections that have been abandoned, where the work has discontinued and those sections are sealed up, the methane potentially builds up in those sections. And if those sections are breached by some function, either an explosion or some other function, if those sections then would be the result -- would be the place where you would get this methane, not in the working sections as the miners do.

You ventilate the working sections on an ongoing basis, with the air and takes off the gas that you're encountering. But in the abandoned areas, you don't ventilate them. You simply keep them in there and hope as they rise above the level of 15 percent, which is then non-explosive.

The difficulty is that these seals -- the same seals, you know, that we heard so much about after the Sago accident, these seals all breathe. And that breathing brings down that level from a non- explosive range to a potentially explosive range. That's where it's suspected it is there.

ROBERTS: You know, we have heard that a number of miners were killed on one of those man trips, those sort of rail sleds that take them into the mine -- maybe more than 1,000 feet away from the actual ignition point. What does that say to you about the power of this explosion?

MCATEER: That suggests a very, very large explosion occurred. Now, remember, you're setting off an explosion in a tunnel so that the force of the explosion will be directed right at the miners and right at their locations. And it will be -- I've heard it described as a tornado kind of effect.

And that kind of effect will push them forward and they would be overcome by that, simply the compression impact on their bodies would be possibly the cause of their death. We don't know that certainly. But that's the kind of thing. But you can expect to see -- you can suggest here that this is a very, very large explosion.

(CROSSTALK)

MCATEER: Go ahead, John.

ROBERTS: I'm sorry. Davitt, I was just going to say, it's good to tap into your expertise. You raise a number of points worth considering for the rest of the day and throughout our coverage. Thanks so much for spending time with us this morning. We really appreciate it.

MCATEER: Oh, you're welcome, John. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Let's go back to -- let's go back to New York now and here's Kiran.

CHETRY: All right, John, thanks.

We're going to take a quick break. We have much more news ahead.

It's 44 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.

California's Attorney General says that actor Corey Haim was doctor shopping for prescription drugs in the days before he died. He is expected to release the details of the investigation at a news conference that's happening later today.

Meanwhile, though, celebrity drug cases make a lot of the headlines. But addiction doesn't discriminate; it hits all towns across this nation.

And this morning in the second part of our Special A.M. series. My producers and I met up with three young people in Pennsylvania who candidly talked to us about how prescription drug abuse quickly became a way of life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty milligram Adderall --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It tastes like orange tictacs. Yum, yum, yum.

CHETRY (voice-over): They have been abusing prescription drugs since age 13. And one of their faces obscured. She's 18 and would only give us her first name, Melissa. Her best friend, also 18, asked to go by Sarah, not her real name. Adam, who is 20, is Melissa's cousin. They live in a town in eastern Pennsylvania.

ONCAM: How did you ever discover prescription drugs or drugs in general?

SARAH: First day of prescription was at school in junior high. And I would ask people in school. They would like yes, go snort this in the bathroom with me. Sometimes I didn't know what it was, like I would be snorting muscle relaxers. Like he would give me Adderall; that's the first time I ever did Adderall.

CHETRY: How long did it take you to get addicted?

SARAH: I wouldn't really -- I wouldn't really say that I am addicted, like I have been on and off.

CHETRY: Do you think you could stop today?

SARAH: No.

CHETRY: Why not?

SARAH: Because I have tried. I made it -- I think I made it three days last week.

CHETRY: What about you Melissa, how did you ever get first introduced to drugs?

MELISSA, 18-YEAR-OLD DRUG USER: My mother was prescribed the Xanax. And I began taking them as well. And -- that was just kind of like an immediate comfort from them.

ADAM, DRUG USER: Yes I just fell in love with it.

CHETRY: For Adam who says he's been sober for five months it was three Vicodin pills stolen from his mom seven years ago that started it all.

ADAM: You know, there's two sides to addiction: there's a mental and there's a physical addiction. But the mental, it's just like you need it and you don't want to do anything else and you don't care about anything else.

CHETRY: And so how did it spiral from there?

ADAM: I just fell in love with the feeling. So I just started, you know, stealing them from her like every day and taking more and more and more. It just got really bad really fast.

CHETRY: It got so bad, Adam, a pre-med student, was kicked-out of college freshman year. After repeated arrests for drug possession, it wasn't long before he was living alone and regularly overdosing on huge amounts of pills.

ADAM: My usual routine was I would eat like 15, 20 of them at once and then like half an hour later, drop like, you know, three or four or maybe five in a double shot of vodka and mix it up until it dissolved and take a shot. And another couple hours, I would do another handful. I was just doing that like every day.

CHETRY: One night, he took about 100 Xanax, passing out while writing a suicide note.

ADAM: When I overdosed, they said my heart actually stopped for a while and I was flat-lining. And the first thing I did when I got out was go right back to it.

CHETRY: It wasn't until he was thrown in jail for several months for violating probation that he made the decision to finally get clean.

ADAM: I was happier in jail than I could ever remember being, even when I was free. I didn't remember what feeling happy was.

CHETRY: Yet Melissa, after three trips to rehab and seeing her cousin, Adam, nearly die from his addiction, is still using.

MELISSA: Like I most certainly am an addict. Like hi, my name is Melissa. I am an addict and I am an alcoholic. Like I know that I am like what but I'm -- I really do just make excuses.

I need to clean my room but I have no ambition. I'm taking Adderall. Yes, my room needs to be cleaned, that's why I took it. Yes, that's why. But just dumb excuses, dumb reasons, just telling myself it is ok. It's not ok.

CHETRY: And so where do you -- after having that type of self- realization, where do you take the next step? What's next?

MELISSA: Honestly, from here, like, I don't know where everything is going to go. But I want to try. I want to try really, really hard to stop making excuses for why I do these things, because it's not getting me anywhere.

CHETRY: For Melissa and Sarah, five years after they first started experimenting with prescription drugs, regrets are now many. Still, shortly after we finished our interview, we find Melissa and Sarah in their car snorting Adderall.

SARAH: Prescription pills suck.

CHETRY: They admit the shame but continue the deadly gamble.

SARAH: I am currently high on them and it's not worth it. It's not worth it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Now since our interview, Melissa admits she continues to use drugs. Adam may be charged with breaking and entering and intent to deliver a controlled substance; this is from a crime he committed over a year ago. He still is clean and sober now. But if convicted, he could be sent to prison.

And Sarah was caught driving with a suspended license and she's now looking at 90 days in jail.

As their drug use continue to take a toll on their lives, we're going to be following their stories and bring you any developments.

In the meantime, they are not alone. The numbers are staggering, prescriptions for stimulants such as Adderall like you saw there have increased sevenfold since 1991. Also opiate prescriptions like Codeine and Oxycodone have jumped from 40 million to nearly 180 million. And one big reason is how easy these pills are to get.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA: They would give me any kind of prescription pills.

CHETRY: For Melissa, Sarah and Adam, like many abusers, the road to addiction started with a trip to their parents medicine cabinet.

MELISSA: Yes I can blow my nose now though.

CHETRY: For 18-year-old Melissa, it was her mom's Xanax pills.

MELLISA: I feel like I don't ever really remember you know, like, searching for pills.

CHETRY: In your house?

MELISSA: I would literally crawl around the floor on my mom's room. And I could find like four or five and go to the bathroom closet and rummage through everything and I could find some there.

CHETRY: But doctors can also unwittingly play a role when it comes to feeding addiction. 18-year-old Sarah and 20-year-old Adam learned to game the system.

MELISSA: When I went to my doctor I was like, I got fired from my job because I freaked out, like, I started having a panic attack. And first thing my doctor says is, have you ever tried Xanax? They are like --

CHETRY: And -- and were you lying?

MELISSA: Yes, I was lying.

ADAM: Forty five minutes before you get seen, take short shallow quick breaths like your body is physically having an anxiety attack and you are shaking. And they'll try and start mentioning things that are not addictive. And you just say, oh, I already tried that thing. Until they finally get to Abenzo (ph) and you say yes, I'll give that a try.

DR. KENT ROBERTSHAW, ADDICTION PSYCHIATRIST: There has to be some kind of feedback loop that's not in place right now to let doctors know that this patient was either exaggerating their pain syndrome or that they were using other doctors that the doctor didn't even know about.

CHETRY: Dr. Kent Robertshaw is a psychiatrist specializing in addiction. He says one of the biggest factors contributing to the explosion of prescription drug abuse is the willingness of doctors to prescribe those drugs.

(on camera): When it comes to young people, teenagers, how prevalent is the use of prescription pain killers as well as other prescription drugs?

ROBERTSHAW: It's an enormous epidemic of teenagers and college students who are now, instead of using marijuana, when they are having a beer or doing shots they are now finding they are getting a Vicodin or Percocets or some Xanax.

ADAM: I just fell in love with it and --

CHETRY: At his worst, Adam says he was seeing multiple doctors who prescribed him hundreds of pills a month enough to resell some of them on the street.

ADAM: In three -- about three months, I made about $10,000 and I was still -- I had enough to take.

CHETRY: Dr. Robertshaw says that while some states have programs to monitor people looking to abuse prescriptions, until a national system exists, much of the burden falls on individual doctors.

ROBERTSHAW: The problem is a lot of doctors are very uncomfortable with addictions. They are not used to having a relationship with a patient where they are sort of making accusations or they are suspicious of the patient's behavior. But that's really what doctors need to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Well, tomorrow, in part three of our series, we're going to take a look at the danger that doctors can face from patients who are desperately seeking their prescription drug fix. Carroll Costello is going to be reporting that for us.

In the meantime, it's five minutes until the top of the hour. Our special coverage of the mine explosion in West Virginia continues live in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Back now live with more of our continuing coverage of the Upper Big Branch mining disaster here in Raleigh County, West Virginia. I just want to let you know that we will be here all day and all night with all of the latest developments on the search for the four missing miners.

Just to give you a recap of where we are at this point, just before 9:00 Eastern Time, 25 -- 25 out of the 29 miners who were trapped down in that mine are dead. They have been found dead. There are still four miners who are yet to be found, their whereabouts unknown.

So they do believe that the miners are in separate places. One miner may be along this area, this long wall of coal, as it is called. Two other miners, at the very least, maybe as many as 2,000 feet away from that miner and that whole area of the mine is just saturated with methane gas in toxic levels that have prevented rescuers from getting into that part of the mine.

So here is what the mining company is doing over the next 24 to 48 hours, they are moving equipment to the top of the hills over the mine. They have the GPS coordinates of where those miners are believed to be. And they are going to drill three bore holes down as ventilations shafts. They get fans on the top of those bore holes and to try to suck the methane gas out of that area to allow the rescuers to go back in.

You can imagine for the family members of those four remaining miners just how horrible the next day to two days are going to be, not knowing if their loved ones like Randall McCloy did in -- January, 2006, not far from here in the Sago Mining disaster managed to hang on for 41 hours and was the only miner to survive or whether they may have as their 25 colleagues did, had succumb to the blast.

But we will be here all day on CNN; our commitment to cover this story right here from West Virginia.

Right now, let's send it back to Kiran in New York -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right, John. Thanks so much.

And we invite everyone to continue the conversation on today's story by heading to our blog, cnn.com/amfix.

Meantime the news continues, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts now. Good morning, Kyra.