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American Morning

Miners Still Trapped

Aired July 26, 2002 - 07:02   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: Looking outside again to the situation in Pennsylvania, rescue workers working overnight, trying to drill an escape shaft to reach nine miners trapped since Wednesday in a collapsed coal mine, southwestern Pennsylvania.

Brian Palmer near the scene and joins us live this morning with an update from there.

Brian -- good morning.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

There is plenty of activity here. We're actually about three miles away from the site. Governor Mark Schweiker is actually talking to the press now. We are going to be hearing from a spokesman from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in just a few minutes.

But the headline is no obvious signs of human activity have been heard, as you said, none of that tapping has been heard since about 11:30 a.m. yesterday.

Now, the DEP, the Department of Environmental Protection, is telling us that they're keeping ahead of the water, the levels of water dropping about one foot an hour. But in terms of the actual presence of people down there, whether or not people still survive, they have no way to really ascertain that -- Bill.

HEMMER: Brian Palmer on the scene there in southwestern Pennsylvania.

A reminder again, we're going to talk with one of the people working on that recovery effort in a matter of moments.

Brian, thanks.

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