Dramatic Ending Near for Trapped Chilean Miners

Associated Press, 10.12.2010

 


SAN JOSE MINE, CHILE –  Afterseveral flawless test runs, a 13-foot-tall rescue capsule will descend deepinto the earth later today to bring 33 miners back to the surface after twoagonizing months.  The miners will behoisted up, one by one, in green overalls bearing their names on their chests-- first the fittest, then the weakest, twisting in the steel cage, which hasshown promise in four successful tests.

 

"It didn't even raise any dust," Mining MinisterLaurence Golborne said.

If all goes well, everything will be in place late Tuesday tobegin pulling the men out, officials said. The lead psychologist for the rescueteam recommended the extractions begin at dawn Wednesday.  No official decision was announced, but AndreSougarret, the rescue team coordinator, tweeted Monday evening that "todaythe miners sleep their last night together!"

 

OnMonday, the Phoenix I capsule -- the biggest of three built by Chilean navy engineers, named for themythic bird that rose from ashes -- made its first test run after the top 180feet of the shaft was encased in tubing, the rescue leader said.  Then the empty capsule was winched 2,000feet, just 40 feet short of the shaft system that has been the miners' refugesince an Aug. 5 collapse.

 

"We didn't send it (all the way) down because we could riskthat someone will jump in," a grinning Golborne told reporters.

 

Engineers had planned to extend the piping nearly twice as far,but they decided to stop after the sleeve -- the hole is angled 11 degrees offvertical at its top before plumbing down, like a waterfall -- became jammedduring a probe.

 

Rescue team psychologist Alberto Iturra said he recommended thefirst man be pulled out at dawn because the miners are to be taken by Chileanair force helicopters to the nearby city of Copiapo and fog tends to enshroudthe mine at night.  It is a roughly10-minute flight, said Lt. Col. Aldo Carbone, the choppers' squadron commander.He said the pilots have night-vision goggles but will not fly unless it isclear. Ambulances will be ready for backup. The drive would take about anhour.

 

Officials have drawn up a secret list of which miners should comeout first, but the order could change after paramedics and a mining expertfirst descend in the capsule to evaluate the men and oversee the journeyupward.  First out will be the fourfittest of frame and mind, said health minister Jaime Manalich. Should glitchesoccur, these men will be best prepared to ride them out and tell their comradeswhat to expect.

 

Next will be 10 who are weakest or ill. One miner suffers fromhypertension. Another is a diabetic, and others have dental and respiratory infections or skin lesions from the mine'soppressive humidity.  The last out isexpected to be Luiz Urzua, who was shift chief when the men became entombed,several family members of miners told the AP, speaking on condition ofanonymity because they did not want to upset government officials.

The men will take a twisting, 20-minute ride for 2,041 feet up tothe surface. It should take about an hour for the rescue capsule to make around trip, deputy rescue coordinator Rene Aguilar told The Associated Press.  Golborne said all would be ready by 12:01a.m. Wednesday. Officials wanted to make sure the concrete around the steeltubing at the top of the shaft set, he said.

 

Plans called for the media to be blocked by a screen from viewingthe miners when they reach the surface. A media platform has been set up more than 300 feetaway from mouth of the hole.

Afterbeing extracted, the miners will be ushered through inflatable tunnels, likethe ones used in sports stadiums, to ambulances that will take them to a triagestation. Once cleared by doctors there, they are to be taken to another areawhere they'll be reunited with one to three family members chosen by eachminer.  After the reunion, the miner willbe driven to a heliport for the flight to Copiapo.

 

Iturra, who has tightly managed the miners' underground lives tokeep them fit and busy, turned his attention Monday to their families. Just asthe miners will need time to adjust once they have surfaced, so will theirfamilies, he said.  Iturra recommendedthey leave the tent city where they have kept vigil, which is increasinglybesieged by journalists. It sprang up amid piles of rock at the copper and goldmine isolated in the coastal desert of Atacama.

 

"They need to get their feet firmly back on the ground aswell," he said. "That's why I sent them home to sleep."

 

A torrent of emotions awaits the miners when they finally rejointhe outside world.  As trying as it hasbeen for them to survive underground for 68 days, the mine is at least terracognita. Out of the shaft, they will face challenges so bewildering that noamount of coaching can fully prepare them.

 

They will be celebrated at first, embraced by their families andpursued by reporters, magnets for a world intensely curious to hear theirsurvival story. They have been invited to visit presidential palaces, takeall-expenses-paid vacations and appear on countless TV shows.  Contracts for book and movie deals arepending, along with job offers. More money than they could dream of is alreadyawaiting their signature.  Buteventually, a new reality will set in -- and for most, it won't be anythinglike the life they knew before the mine collapsed above their heads.

 

"Before being heroes, they are victims," University ofSantiago psychologist Sergio Gonzalez told the AP. "These people who arecoming out of the bottom of the mine are different people ... and theirfamilies are, too."

 

For the loved ones awaiting the miners, news that the rescuetunnel was nearly ready brought a mixture of joy and anxiety.  Maria Segovia, whose 48-year-old brother,Dario, is among those trapped, said that when he is finally out, "I'lltell him I love him, that I'm very proud of you." Then, she said, smiling,"I'll kick his backside" so he never goes into a mine again.

 

Chile's government has promised each miner at least sixmonths of psychological support, in part to deal with the sudden fame.  At first they'll feel besieged, poorlytreated by the media and perhaps overwhelmed by the attention even of their ownfamilies, predicted Dr. Claus Behn, a University of Chile physiologist.  Society will "demand to know everyminute detail, and they're going to offer enormous quantities of money andpopularity," the doctor said.

 

The miners' psychological support team was designed mostly to helpthem endure the extreme conditions. They have also received training to dealwith the media, told they need not answer every intrusive question.

 

Theminers have seemed happy in videos they filmed and sent to the surface, butsome have avoided the exposure. And while Manalich insists they are unified,reflecting the disciplined teamwork that helped them survive, all that couldchange once they are out.

 

Already,relations within and between their families have become strained as some seemto be getting more money and attention than others.  A philanthropic Chilean mining executive,Leonardo Farkas, gave $10,000 checks in the miners' names to each of the 33families, and set up a fund to collect donations. Co-workers who weren'ttrapped, but were left out of a job -- including some who narrowly escapedgetting crushed in the collapse -- wonder whether they will be taken care of,too.

 

One miner's child was invited onto a Chilean TV game show whereshe earned thousands ofdollars, and 27 of the 33workers have filed a $10 million negligence lawsuit against the mine's owners.A similar suit against government regulators is planned.  The money rush will be intense -- andtemporary. The government required each miner to designate someone to receivetheir $1,600 monthly salary, and opened bank accounts that only the minersthemselves can access.

 

But Behn said the miners need good financial advice as well so themoney doesn't melt away.

"Ifthey're getting now a violent inflow of money, it should be administered sothat it can serve them for the rest of their lives," Behn said.

 

Whatoften happens after situations of extreme isolation is that the survivor tellseverything all at once, and when there's nothing left to say, misunderstandingsbegin.  Manalich said the miners seemincredibly unified.  Brandon Fisher,president of the company that made the drill hammers that opened the escapeshaft, cautioned that the miners' unity may not last.

 

His drill heads also helped save nine men in Pennsylvania in theQuecreek Mine disaster in 2002. They, too, came out of the hole blinking in theglare of TV cameras, and in some cases their friendships and familyrelationships didn't hold up.

 

"They'rein for the surprise of their lives. From here on out, their lives will havechanged," Fisher predicted. "There aren't too many of those guys whoget along because of all the attention, the lawsuits, the movie deals. Oncemoney gets involved, it gets ugly."

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Trapped Chilean Miners being rescued from the chilean mine accident.  Protech is the dealer for Procore selling Web based construction software also called construction cloudware.  Miners trapped in Chile are to be rescued today according to plans. 

Posted by ProTech at 10/12/2010 10:28 AM
Categories: News
Tags: chilean mine accident Trapped Chilean Miners construction cloudware Procore dealer protech Web based construction software Miners trapped in Chile
 

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