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CNN Live Sunday

Governor Schweiker Optimistic Throughout Rescue Efforts

Aired July 28, 2002 - 18:35   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hope was a constant companion for the miners and their rescuers in Pennsylvania. Despite obstacles and setbacks, they pushed forward as a group with one goal.

One of those voicing optimism through it all was Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK SCHWEIKER, GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA: They talked about what it was like Wednesday night after we had the blowout. And I don't think I have to say too much other than do my best to illustrate what they had faced at one moment.

As best as I can make out, somewhere between nine and 11 p.m., the blowout was somewhere between 8:30 and nine. But, to the man, they told me that they hit a point where, in that 48-inch-tall tunnel, that they were literally gasping for air. And their noses, with the water at their chin was up at the top, and they were -- the force of the water had gotten so strong that they couldn't even swing to break through that wall to move to safety.

And, to the man, that's how they described it.

And to the man, they will tell you that it was at that point that they thought they were soon to meet their maker. And so they're delighted to be in Johnstown at this hospital, in light of what they experienced that night.

And then they scrambled to the highest ground they could find. They -- the ordeal did not stop there. They -- it was some time before we dropped that six-inch air pipe that was the means for them to communicate through tapping that they were alive.

So, for a period of time, there was no discernible activity that they could -- from which they could draw encouragement. And they did prepare farewell notes for their loved ones.

And I guess they passed the pen around, and they grabbed some makeshift cardboard from some resin boxes, and each, you know, penned their -- what they thought would be their final notes.

So, that is an ordeal, you would agree. And they very gently placed those notes in a bucket, and attached it to something. I just have to leave it at that. I don't know what it was.

But they had enough semblance of mind and concern for their loved ones, that they wanted to leave behind what they saw then as their final message, because the situation in their mind was worsening. The water was still advancing.

And, you realize at that point, the pumps were not in place, and we couldn't begin the effort at taking out the water.

So, these are nine, rugged individuals who prevailed against great odds. And as I've just tried to describe it, those two references, both as the water almost took their breath away, and they faced the prospect of drowning, to having the ultimate, in distressing actions of penning a farewell note to their family -- they've been through a lot.

And I'm proud to tell you that they are strong Pennsylvania miners, and they got out.

And they are -- and then I'll finish with this -- I've heard from every one of them that they are boundlessly grateful for the response and the deployment that was, that is associated with the drill site there at that farm.

And you know what was placed there. It was large, it was significant. We had the best mines, the best technology and the best equipment. And we moved quickly.

And closing remark as far as their thoughts -- they know mining. They know drilling. And they will tell you, they know about the far- reaching good that those pumps did.

Without moving quickly, without getting those pumps into the ground, I'm not sure we'd be standing outside of a hospital, reflecting positively on six Pennsylvanians who are back with their families and are living.

We likely would be outside of, well, the media center where we were, just down the road from the drill site.

And one other note, they wanted you to know, a second note about the significance of the pumps as it relates to rescue shaft one.

The -- it's likely that, had we not run into that drill bit problem where we had to stop drilling, and we stripped the drill head on that 36 -- or 30-inch -- 30-inch drill, and we had continued and we were successful, that we'd have hit that chamber, and we'd have hit water.

Point being that that delay brought on by Mother Nature's fickle way in that geologic formation that we couldn't move, to providential intervention, we'd have gone down there, gone through the ceiling, and would have hit water.

And one only knows what would have happened after that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Governor Schweiker said, getting all nine men out alive is a tribute to the 200 people involved in the rescue.

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