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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interviews With Betsy Mallison, Jeff Davidson
Aired July 27, 2002 - 09:02 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Foot by foot, hour by hour, rescuers are struggling to reach the nine trapped coal miners in western Pennsylvania. They are making some progress. The governor says that they could reach the men -- could reach the men -- this afternoon.
Let's go to CNN's Brian Palmer, who's joining us for Pennsylvania with the latest.
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Catherine. After a series of setbacks, progress is being made. We are joined now by Betsy Mallison of the Department of Environmental Protection of Pennsylvania, the lead state agency.
Betsy, give us an update on what's going on now in the rescue effort.
BETSY MALLISON, PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: Well, we have great news. We're down to 169 feet on both of the two rescue shafts. We were a little stymied earlier today with some problems with getting down the shaft, but we've made it through those, and we're at 169 on both.
PALMER: Now, obstacle in shaft one was a dense layer of limestone. Governor just talked a bit about that. Any other obstacles you expect to face?
MALLISON: Well, certainly as we go through the different stratas, we're going to be hitting different layers of rock, eventually getting, you know, down to the coal seam. So we're working as best we can to work around all those different layers and get through them.
PALMER: Now, obvious question is very difficult to answer, the condition, the physical condition of the miners. Any indications through your monitoring devices what their condition is?
MALLISON: No, we haven't heard from them in some time. But the site is incredibly noisy. There are two or three drill rigs on site, a number of cranes, a bulldozer. So they can certainly tell that we're coming for them by the amount of activity above ground.
PALMER: Now, this is a question that I asked the governor at the press conference. The first day of press conferences, there was a representative from Blackwulth (ph) Coal, the owner of the mine. We haven't seen him lately. Any reason for that?
MALLISON: He is directing operations up at the recovery site, and we have talked to him. He has been in touch with the families. In fact, along with the state people, he is updating the families on an hourly basis. So he is communicating, just he's not made it to the press conferences.
He was here, I think, on the first day, but he's been really busy.
PALMER: Will we be hearing anything else in the next few hours, Betsy?
MALLISON: Well, we hope that we'll have good news that we're going to be hitting our mark. We're about four feet away from the amount of water that will be decreased in the mine. It has dropped by 26 feet overall in the water table. They have three or four more feet to go till we clear that water out.
If you recall, when the incident occurred, there were 50 to 60 million gallons of water that entered that mine. And it filled up like a glass of water. We're slowly draining it out. There are 10 pumps in place, and they are pumping their little hearts out.
PALMER: Betsy, thank you. Thank you very much for that update.
So Catherine, that's the latest here from Somerset County. We're here in coal country in Pennsylvania. We're hoping to have some new information to bring you within the next couple of hours, hopefully good news -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Yes, indeed. Let's hope it's good news. Thank you, Brian. That's Brian Palmer there in Pennsylvania.
But on the phone with us now we have Jeff Davidson, who is with WKYE Radio. He's actually at the site where they're drilling these shafts.
And Jeff, can you hear me? What's the situation there?
JEFF DAVIDSON, WKYE RADIO: The situation here is actually quite interesting. Things have really picked up over the last several hours. They've informed us that they're about to build a road to get more equipment and to get better access down into the drilling site.
Also, from where I'm standing, which is about 50 feet away from Rescue One, that's the name that they've given to the first drill that they installed, we can see the capsule that they are about to enter into this hole that they're making, whenever it's able to be inserted.
This capsule stands approximately -- and this is an approximate -- 10 to 12 feet tall, and it holds one man. It's about as big around as a -- Governor Schweiker called it about as big around as a large garbage can. And there is a wire mesh outside core to it which will hold the person inside of it. This will only hold one man at a time, and we've been watching them test this piece of equipment. We've been watching them, you know, put a man inside, lift it off the ground with a crane, and just make sure that all of the parts are in working order.
So it's been a very interesting day today. We've seen a lot of family members from the victims. We've talked to a lot of the representatives from the governor's office. And it's been a very interesting day here in Somerset County.
CALLAWAY: Jeff, we've heard the governor say that they hope to reach the men by noon. There at the site, are the rescuers -- do they have that type of optimism that they will be there that quickly?
DAVIDSON: Well, we haven't talked to any rescuers directly, but we -- I can tell you that they are working furiously. And if the governor is saying between noon or 1:00, I can honestly say that from my vantage point, that may be a feasible option.
They have been working very hard, and they have been increasing the workload of people. And it appears to me, just from what we see going around with all of the equipment and such being brought in, that it could quite possibly be very soon that we'll see someone or something emerging from that drilling hole.
CALLAWAY: Oh, that would be great news. All right, Jeff Davidson. He's with WKYE radio. Thank you, Jeff.
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