Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Betsy Mallison

Aired July 28, 2002 - 09:05   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, hopes and prayers have been answered in Pennsylvania, where nine miners were pulled from the earth alive.

THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, great news from there. The miners are now in local hospitals, reunited with loved ones, and recovering from a 77-hour ordeal. Unimaginable. CNN's Jeff Flock reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. MIKE SCHWEIKER, PENNSYLVANIA: All nine are alive.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Confirmation from Governor Mike Schweiker of his wildest of dreams.

SCHWEIKER: All nine are alive, and we believe that all nine are in pretty good shape, and the families now know that. So, incredible.

FLOCK: Minutes earlier, drillers punched through the last of 239 feet of rock into what they hoped was a pressurized refuge. Down the former air hole goes a two-way. Miraculously, someone on the other end is there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is an undying faith there that these guys were coming out. I mean, I never lost faith. I knew they were coming out.

FLOCK: At 1:00 a.m., 43-year-old Randy Fogle, complaining of chest pains, becomes the first miner out of the hole. Minutes later he is airlifted to the trauma center in Johnstown where we talked to his doctor.

DR. RICHARD SALUZZO: Some patients in this kind of situation when they lay on one part of their body for a day or two they get breakdown out of their muscle and that can injure their kidneys. So we need to do a lot of -- a large work-up still on him before we give him a clean bill of health.

FLOCK: Not long after, a live hookup is established with the drill site, and the families, America and the world watched them emerge one by one every 15 minutes or so, coal soaked and wet. One man amazingly even had some juice left in his headlamp. As they come up in a cage-like cylinder last successfully in a mine rescue in 1972, their names are read to reporters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Number two miner at 1:15 a.m., Harry Mayhugh. That's M-A-Y-H-U-G-H. Name, Tom Foy, F like Frank, O-Y.

FLOCK: The rescuers plagued by broken bits and other setbacks along the way say they won't celebrate until all nine are lifted up. And with 41-year-old Mark Popernack, who apparently helped organize the group below, the last man does emerge.

SCHWEIKER: For the world to see, to be accomplished in such magnificent style makes it a beautiful ending.

FLOCK: I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, Somerset, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: We want to continue now with this. For more on the miners and their amazing rescue, we go to CNN's Brian Palmer. He joins us now live from Somerset County, PA with more from there. Brian, again, good morning.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Thomas. This chunk of southwestern Pennsylvania is rejoicing today, particularly the families of these nine miners who, as you said, are safe and reasonably sound after spending about 77 some odd hours 240 feet below the ground level.

We are joined with one of the first state officials on the scene for this accident -- incident, Betsy Mallison of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Betsy, we heard a story describing what all happened, but I'm still -- can you walk us through what happened between the time that they punched through into the void and they pulled the first miner, Randy Fogle, out?

BETSY MALLISON, PENNSYLVANIA DEPT. OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: Well, that big long cage that you saw was what the miners were pulled up in. And before they could get that cage in the ground, they needed to pull out all of the old equipment that was there, the old steel, the old bits, you know, things that we had used to get that big hole open. Those had to come out so there was space to put that basket down.

The first basket went down with food and water and lights, blankets, so that they had some immediate comfort. And then the process began of bringing the miners up. And what a joyous time that was, as they all came up one by one.

PALMER: Betsy, we are being interrupted.

(INTERRUPTED FOR COVERAGE OF A LIVE EVENT)

CALLAWAY: Apparently, Frank cannot hear me. Anyway, we wanted to bring the arrival to you of the pope to the crowd there in Toronto, and we are going to go back now to Brian Palmer who is standing by with the latest on what is going on there in Pennsylvania.

Brian, sorry for the interruption.

PALMER: That's OK. Betsy is patient, particularly after having waited for four days to get these miners out. Betsy, we talked about the process of getting them out. What happens next?

MALLISON: Well, we are going to continue pumping the water. As you recall, that was one of our biggest concerns, trying to draw down the water in the mine. When the incident occurred, we knew that 50 to 60 million gallons of water entered that mine, and for days, we've been trying to pump that level down.

And we reached that level where we felt comfortable to bring the miners out, but there is still water in that mine, and there is still work to be done. So we are going to continue pumping that out, and the reason for that is, there is still equipment in that mine, and if they're going to seal it or in the final disposition of the mine, you know, that is something that still needs to be done.

In addition, that shaft is going to have to be closed. It's a direct conduit, obviously, to the mine, needs to be closed, needs to be sealed. So that will be something that will happen in the next day or so.

PALMER: So will that involve actually sending people back into that situation, back into the mine?

MALLISON: No, no. It's something that can be done, what we call grouting, which you push like a cement kind of substance down the hole, it fills up and then you're done.

PALMER: Super. Betsy, thank you very much. Betsy Mallison, who was one of the first officials here to deal with this onslaught of press, always with patience and charm. So I'm going to throw it back to you, folks in Atlanta.

ROBERTS: Brian, real quickly, you know, we are hearing from Betsy about what their plans are expected to be with that mine shaft. What about the plans that they can pretty much write a textbook about how to perform a rescue operation? We heard that from the governor this morning. But in this situation, there were some setbacks, because they had to get this drill in from West Virginia, and then we had that other setback where the drill bit broke. So are they going to take some lessons learned from this and implement them for potentially the next time?

PALMER: Well, those incidents that you cite, the broken drill bit and broken stabilizer that was on the drill and on the rescue shaft, too, I mean, that was mechanical failure. There is not a lot you can do about that.

But, otherwise, I mean, yes, they will be studying this rescue, but it appears to have gone really, as you say, according to a textbook. And this is a textbook that they largely wrote here. The last rescue similar to this was in 1972, and even that, according to the mine rescue officials, was not exactly similar. So they've learned a lot of lessons and they've created some new ones right here in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

ROBERTS: Well, obviously there was definitely a synergy going on, because the nine miners who were stuck believed that the rescue crews would get to them, and the rescue crews certainly believed that they would find the nine miners alive, which they did, and now they are resting comfortably in good condition in local hospitals there around Somerset.

Brian, we appreciate your tireless efforts there. We'll talk again soon, I'm sure.

PALMER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com