Stuck in a 50m2 mining shelter for 3 months? No?

[weemadando]

Then cheer the fuck up and go and get some pussy/cock (your preference). An option these guys don't have. Because these guys are going to be the news story of the year unless Pat Robertson tears off a mask revealing himself to be Osama Bin Laden and manages to shoot a load of anthrax laden semen onto Miss Americas face live on Glenn Beck's show.

ABC News - Chilean Miners to be trapped in collapsed area for three months.

[PeZook]

I'd take that over being dead, though it's by no means pleasant.

Fortunately they're not in physical danger anymore, their biggest problem is going to be keeping sane.

[Sea Skimmer]

They are still in plenty of physical danger, no one really knows how much of that mine is really stable, and after suffering from near starvation and near death by dehydration the health of every one of those guys is suspect. Communications and the ability to send drugs down from the surface helps, but a hot dank mine is hardly a good place for recovery from ones near death experience. They’ve got a 63 year old down the mine, that’s not exactly old age, but then being a hard rock miner isn’t exactly good for your health and long time life expectancy either. Beats soft coal mining though, fewer gases.

It seems they have access to about 2km of galleries, so its hoped they’ll stay motivated and exercise properly which would really help things. Some team of experts is being assembled to help plan all at it seems.

[eion]

They haven't been told that they'll be down there that long, but that's not the worst part. Their families, who can communicate with them at the moment do know how long they could be down there, and have been told not to tell the miners.

That's a tough weight to carry.

These guys are alive, but they are not going to enjoy the next 4 months of their lives.

Or, they'll watch some really good movies and give up smoking. Who knows.

[Broomstick]

The men have been told they'll be down the mine for the Chilean election, and I guess they're sneaking up on the "you'll be there for four months" thing rather than just dumping it on them. I have mixed feelings about that, I hope they're doing the right thing. After all, these guys are miners, they know it takes time to drill through rock, they know they're not getting out next week. Also - no one is absolutely sure how long this will take. If you give them a definite date and can't make the deadline that could be utterly devastating to those trapped.

The weight loss reported is pretty damn significant - in 2005 I lost a comparable amount of weight in the same time period due to a serious illness. The situation isn't entirely the same, but they will have lost strength as well as weight. However, in a person who starts out healthy such a weight loss, while stressful, is definitely survivable. Dehydration is the more serious problem.

Most critical, however, is their mental state. Months-long survival is possible now that they can be supplied with food and water. So far, they seemed to be in pretty good spirits even with several of the men showing some signs of depression (really, on a certain level being depressed about being trapped underground is sort of normal, you know?) The guys with the sleeping problems and other symptoms are still, apparently, functional though. Having organized themselves somewhat is a good sign. Keeping morale will be enormously important.

[weemadando]

There's a reason NASA jumped on board. They're consulting on how to avoid going insane for the miners and the families.

[Thanas]

It seems they have access to about 2km of galleries, so its hoped they’ll stay motivated and exercise properly which would really help things. Some team of experts is being assembled to help plan all at it seems.

They have to keep their waist below 90 cm, otherwise they will not fit through the rescue tube that is being planned.

[cosmicalstorm]

This situation reminds me a lot of Arthur Clarke's novel A Fall of Moondust. Though that takes place on the moon. Great book for anyone who's curious about complicated rescue-efforts. Relatively hard sci-fi too IIRC.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Ok, I have not been able to find too many details on just what trapped them or the events leading up to it... So, I am curious how these minners have survived and how they will have food, air, and water for 4 months, when every time there is an 'accident' State side our miners all die off?

Does Chile just care about miners more? Did these miners just get really lucky?

It sounds as if there is a way to pass small things to the miners, I am guessing that is how they took this movie and got it out? Can they pass through dvd's books? Other stuff?

[Broomstick]

Ok, I have not been able to find too many details on just what trapped them or the events leading up to it... So, I am curious how these minners have survived and how they will have food, air, and water for 4 months, when every time there is an 'accident' State side our miners all die off?

I'm not sure what, exactly, happened, but it involved some tunnels collapses that blocked all exits from the mine.

The did NOT have food, air and water for four months. What they had was an emergency shelter that remained intact with some limited supplies. It's intended basically as a "life boat" for miners until outside help can reach them. As it is, it took 7 prior attempts and three weeks before they actually drilled an access hole to reach these guys (apparently, maps of the mine were not entirely accurate and thus the trouble locating these guys). Given how much weight the men have lost, food supplies must have been EXTREMELY limited.

Now that an access hole has been drilled the men can be resupplied as needed.

In other recent mine disasters either such shelters have not been present, or the miners were unable to reach the shelters, or something else occurred to kill off the miners and/or destroy the shelters. They aren't, after all, foolproof and you have to GET to the things to use them. If you're on the wrong side of a tunnel collapse you're screwed. If there's a mine fire it might leave you without oxygen. That sort of thing

Does Chile just care about miners more? Did these miners just get really lucky?

Chile might have more evenly applied safety regulations. In any case, yes, they got VERY lucky.

It sounds as if there is a way to pass small things to the miners, I am guessing that is how they took this movie and got it out? Can they pass through dvd's books? Other stuff?

They drilled a hole 15 cm/6 inches in diameter. That's it. Whatever fits through there is what can be sent or retrieved from the guys below. At that, deliveries take 20 minutes each way and they do NOT want to risk anything getting stuck!

2 more such holes will be drilled, to provide backup, power cables, etc.

THEN they'll drill a rescue hole that's considerably wider to retrieve the men. This will take much longer, and require careful placement and reinforcement for safety. Then they'll put the men in a sort of metal capsule and pull them up one by one.

Even after a month of near-starvation at least 9 of the men will have to lose additional weight to be rescued. It will be a very tight fit and, again, you do NOT want to get stuck in the tube!

[General Zod]

Ok, I have not been able to find too many details on just what trapped them or the events leading up to it... So, I am curious how these minners have survived and how they will have food, air, and water for 4 months, when every time there is an 'accident' State side our miners all die off?

Does Chile just care about miners more? Did these miners just get really lucky?

It sounds as if there is a way to pass small things to the miners, I am guessing that is how they took this movie and got it out? Can they pass through dvd's books? Other stuff?

There's an article at the NYTimes about it I was reading yesterday. Apparently it collapsed because the mining company that owns it decided to ignore safety regulations. As far as why they're spending so much to rescue them, it's at least partly a political move.

With his popularity already slipping, President Sebastián Piñera has staked his nascent presidency on rescuing the miners, and is keeping up a full-court media press that reflects both his background as the billionaire former head of a media empire and the strategy that helped get him elected, analysts said.

“With a conviction that seemed to border on political suicide, the authorities bet all or nothing, and this time the returns will have incalculable reach,” Max Colodro Riesenberg, a professor at the University Adolfo Ibáñez, wrote in a newspaper column this week.

[Sea Skimmer]

The did NOT have food, air and water for four months. What they had was an emergency shelter that remained intact with some limited supplies. It's intended basically as a "life boat" for miners until outside help can reach them.

They had 2 days of food to be specific, and the only reason they didn't die of thirst was because they dug a sump in the mine floor to collect small amounts of water. Apparently they could only dug the sump in the solid rock because they still had a working piece of mining machinery.

[Broomstick]

Resourceful guys, then - that bodes well for them getting through this, even if they don't get above ground until the end of the year.

[Serafina]

I hope those people will get psychatric care and advice after this. I have some doubts about it due to (my perception of ) south american culture, but no one is goingc trough something like that without any scars or wounds. And those should be tended.

[Alyeska]

30 some people together should help the mental mind set. And having communication with the outside world should keep them calm.

[Broomstick]

Just in case anyone was wondering what a "rescue pod" used in these situations looks like:



This is most likely how these guys will be brought to the surface.

[Archaic`]

It sounds as if there is a way to pass small things to the miners, I am guessing that is how they took this movie and got it out? Can they pass through dvd's books? Other stuff?

Apparently they've all been given PSP's, and something to charge them with.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Its very encouraging to see this. Its really amazing how much the miners have going for them. If you're going to be trapped 2000 feet down, this mine is the best situation you're going to get. It shouldn't have happened, though, they're only alive because the men were subsisting on about 250 calories a day until the first tunnel found them.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Saw this update on CNN.

Cigarettes, electricity on the way to trapped miners.

Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- The miners trapped for more than a month in Chile are getting a light in more ways than one.

The 33 men have received a power line that will allow them to install electric lights in their shelter 2,300 feet underground, mining officials said Saturday.

Officials are also granting the miners' longstanding request for cigarettes. Rescuers are sending down two packs a day to be split between the miners who want to smoke, Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

Cigarettes were among the first requests made by some of the miners, but officials have been supplying them with nicotine patches and gum instead. Upgrades made to ventilation in the mine led officials to decide to allow them to smoke, Manalich said.

A new compressor was improving air circulation in the mine, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said, and the addition of electricity will allow the men to have more lighting in the area where they are trapped, helping restore their sleep patterns.

After rescuers reach them, the lights might help the men adjust to daylight, Manalich said. But doctors will still take special precautions to protect the miners' eyes once they reach the surface, he said.

Officials estimate it could take until at least November to free the miners, who have been trapped underground since August 5.

Rescuers are using three drilling methods -- dubbed Plan A, Plan B and Plan C -- in their efforts to reach them.

The men underground have expressed concern over hearing the rescue drills' stopping and starting, Manalich said.

"We explained to them that the drills stop and start, there isn't any big change," Manalich said. "The drills stop for maintenance, they have programmed stoppages and they have stoppages like we are seeing with Plan B."

Plan B, a drill usually used to make water bore holes, has not been drilling after hitting a steel beam in the mine which "completely destroyed" the drill's bit, Manalich said. Workers, he said, were digging the broken bit out and then would replace it but that process could take several days.

On Saturday, more pieces of the Plan C drilling platform arrived at the drilling site. An oil drilling platform the size of a soccer field, the Plan C is expected to drill faster than the other two drills already at work.

While the idea of sending down cigarettes seems like a bad one, it's probably not going to cause any catastrophes, I would think. There's almost certainly no flammable gas pockets in with them (or they'd be dead,) and it seems like they're setting up really powerful air pumps to keep air circulating down the hole.

I can't imagine what kind of terrifying it must be to hear the rescue machine that's supposed to be saving your ass stopping - let alone grinding to a halt on a steel beam. It does seem that they've brought in a major big gun, though - according to the article, they're assembling an oil drilling rig on the site that they hope will chew through the ground very, very fast. It's good to see that they're not saying "one plan is good" and instead they're implementing three simultaneous rescue operations.

That's the kind of redundancy that saves people's lives, not to mention must be a huge morale boost - to know that if not heaven, the guys up top are moving a hell of a lot of earth to pull you out of the middle of a mountain.

[PeZook]

It's good they're getting all that equipment: maintaining it and installing lights etc. will introduce a daily routine and give them something to do, so it's beneficial in more ways than one.

[ShadowDragon8685]

It's good they're getting all that equipment: maintaining it and installing lights etc. will introduce a daily routine and give them something to do, so it's beneficial in more ways than one.

I agree. Having nothing to do seems like heaven, but it's more like a void. (Lesson I learned the hard way after being unemployed.)

[Crossroads Inc.]

Saw this on Yahoo recently, Short Video that shows the miners and what they have down there along with just how small the tube is that sends stuff down to them.

[weemadando]

Also, the pilot rescue drill broke. They're still trying to see if they can recover the busted parts from the tunnel that it's dug so far or if they'll have to start over...

[Phantasee]

Trapped Chilean miners show hidden depths after two months underground

How the 33 Chilean miners and their families have risen to the challenge of their enforced separation
Jonathan Franklin
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 October 2010 14.55 BST

Police Officer Mario Segura had just finished a course on how to save people from drowning. After hours in the cold of the Pacific Ocean, he was back at the station, ready to boil some water, drink some tea and end his 10-hour shift.

When the phone rang, he joked "probably a rescue," as the men always seemed to get hauled into the dust-clogged desert when they were about to finish a shift or had just spent the day scrubbing the cars spotless.

"I could tell by his face it was serious, he completely froze up," said Segura as he described the initial SOS that arrived at the police station on 4 August. Though the mine accident had happened at lunchtime, the specially trained Special Operations Group (GOPE in Spanish) was notified hours later, as the sun set on this deserted corner of northern Chile.

Packing ropes, carabiners, oxygen tanks and rescue ladders, the police moved quickly. Mining accidents in this part of Chile, especially in the San Jose mine, were common. "I looked at my watch and it was 7.30pm, I told my buddy we'd be back in three hours," said Segura. "Rescues always last three hours."

But when the police commandos were first briefed by geologists from the mine and began to listen to workers describe the "volcano" of dust and debris that had poured from the mountain, they began to unload their entire stash of equipment.

For the next 36 hours, in one futile attempt after another, they slowly lowered themselves into the mine as they descended a series of perilous ventilation ducts. Rocks fell around them. Small avalanches sprung from the walls, sending rivers of debris dangerously close to the team. Finally, the men found an entrance into the mine – but it was sealed.

"Usually a mine collapses and around the edges you can find space or rubble, but this was like one huge rock had just slid down," said Segura. "It looked polished, cleanly cut."

With all escape hatches sealed, the miners had no choice but to seek refuge at the bottom of the mine, 688 metres deep, where they had a small refuge and a section of tunnel that would now be home.

Luis "Lucho" Urzua was the designated shift leader and a man who commanded great respect from his workers – 32 of whom were now depending on him for leadership. Urzua rose to the occasion. He divided the men into three groups and created a sense of purpose for each man, a move that psychologists would later determine to be a key factor in the men's ability to spend 10 weeks underground without suffering mental breakdowns.

Urzua had more than two decades of experience as a miner, but had never worked in a mine as dangerous as San Jose. Locals jokingly called the men who worked there the kamikazes. Rarely did a month go by without serious mishap. In miner lingo, the San Jose mine regularly "goteaba" (dripped), which means rocks the size of a football fell from the roof. More than a few of the 33 trapped miners have missing fingers, a grim reminder that setting explosives in a darkened cave filled with loose rock is about as dangerous as work can be. "He never really talked about how dangerous it was, but we knew," said Carolina Lobos, 26, whose father, Franklin Lobos, is one of the 33. "He had been trapped before, in a different mine when a fire broke out, so we have been outside an accident before, but that one only lasted for 14 hours."

Urzua guided his men through the most difficult period, the first 17 days when they had no contact with the outside world and virtually no food. Living off a meagre ration of one spoonful of tuna fish and a half glass of milk every 48 hours, the men survived for 17 days until a rescue drill bored a hole large enough to deliver food, medical supplies and letters from their loved ones.

The miners' wives and families could never have imagined that the incident in early August would last a full two months. "I have passed through every possible stage of suffering [including] pain, anguish, terror, panic and uncertainty," said Elvira "Katty" Valdivia, wife of Mario Sepulveda. "You can't imagine the conditions in which these men worked. Mario would come out of there and spit these wads of black I don't know what … Never again will I let him work in a mine."

For many relatives, the months have been a mix of anguish and remorse. Several of the miners, it turned out, had multiple families who have now been thrust together on this uncomfortable stage.

Johnny Barrios, a shy miner known to be a great sketch artist, was pushed to the centre of the media circus when two women came to the mine to pray for their lover to be free. "Johnny doesn't want to come up," one of the psychologists for the miners would later joke in reference to the uncomfortable confrontation awaiting Barrios.

Other miners have confessed that after two months of solitude and reflection, they are aware of a singular truth – the end of their marriage. "I have realised how empty my life has been for all these … years," said one miner who plans to end his marriage on arrival topside.

For Victor Zamora, the confinement forced him to slow his perpetual workaholic schedule. "He found his other self down there," said Nelly, his mother, beaming with pride. "He always worked so much, he never stopped for anything, but now he has discovered that he is a poet. What he writes is so moving, so much from his heart, it is all just beautiful."

---

Just thought I'd post a timely update. Latest news is they should be out sometime tomorrow.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Its fascinating, really. The whole thing is almost like a massive social experiment that you could never do. We'll be reading about this for a very long time.