http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1633713.htm
and http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,1770790,00.html
The 2 miners have walked out of the mine! 2 weeks after being trapped 1 kilometre underground by a rockfall triggered by an earthquake!! This was in a goldmine in northern Tasmania.
Eight days ago they were 'found' alive, but it's taken the rescue people this long to tunnel in to them. 14 days trapped in a 1.2m cube steel cage - 2 of them in a space not big enough to stand up in or stretch out!! - I just can't believe it! Wonderful scenes on the television at 6am this morning of them walking out of the lift into the arms of their family and fellow miners!!!
The whole of Australia has been following this, particularly since last Sunday week when they were discovered alive. At that point they'd survived 8 days on a muesli bar and licking water of the rocks. After that the rescuers managed to get a small pipe drilled 3m through to them that they could send food and drink down through - they even got sent a couple of iPods. Because the rescue kept running into problems and they obviously didn't want to do anything to trigger a further rockfall, it's taken this long to actually get to them.
Their health has been monitored by medical crews and paramedics for all this time - but even though the miners had said they were determined to walk out of the mine gates, no one quite believed that they'd be well enough to do so. But they were and they did!!
Sadly a third miner caught in the rockfall was discovered dead. His funeral is today (his family having held it back in the hope that the other 2 would be out and able to come to it). Although they're in the hospital now having checks, I feel sure they will go ...
4 weeks ago
