Chilean miners to be out in time for Christmas...

Einhard

Poor baxtards. I know they're probably thanking their stars that they're alive, but can anyone imagine being stuck in such a small space with 32 other men for almost 4 months? Jesus, if I'm on the Luas any for more than 20 minutes I feel my sanity begin to go into meltdown!

Miners in Chile face four months trapped underground while an escape tunnel is built Link to this video
Joy greeted the news that a group of Chilean miners trapped for 17 days deep inside a collapsed mine are all alive but the challenge now facing the 33 men is to maintain their sanity during the four months it will take to free them.
A rescue probe that drilled down 2,257ft to the bottom of the San José mine made contact with the miners yesterday, who sent back a message reading: "All 33 of us are well inside the shelter."
A note from the eldest of the trapped miners to his wife Lilian Ramírez indicated that the men were aware of the challenge facing them but confident that they would prove equal to it.
"Even if we have to wait months to communicate … I want to tell everyone that I'm good and we'll surely come out OK," Mario Gómez, 63, wrote, scrawling the words on a sheet of notebook paper that the miners tied to the probe. "Patience and faith. God is great and the help of my God is going to make it possible to leave this mine alive."
Video footage of one of the miners, taken with a small camera sent underground after receipt of the handwritten message, was obtained by CNN Chile. There has been no audio contact yet but the unnamed man appeared to be in good spirits.
Chilean authorities intend to send microphones down to communicate with the miners directly. Food, water, medicine and other supplies will also be sent down into the mine.
Rescue equipment from around the world is being rushed in to build an underground escape tunnel.
But officials said it would take at least four months to carve a second shaft some 68cm in diameter, wide enough for the miners to be pulled up one by one.
Davitt McAteer, the assistant secretary for mine safety and health at the US labor department under Bill Clinton said the miners' survival after 17 days was unusual but he predicted that having made it this far, they would emerge physically fine.
"The health risks in a copper and gold mine are pretty small if you have air, food and water," he said.
But he said the stress of being trapped underground for a long period of time could be significant. "There is a psychological pattern there that we've looked at," McAteer said. However, he added: "They've established communication with the guys; there are people who can talk them through that."
The miners were trapped on 5 August by a collapse in the roof of the mine, located outside the northern Chilean city of Copiapó. Mine officials had said the shelter's emergency air and food supplies would last only 48 hours.
Gomez wrote that the miners had created a canal of fresh water and used electricity from a truck engine to rig up lighting deep inside the copper mine, apparently creating a makeshift refuge.
From the day the mine collapsed, dozens of relatives staked out what they call Camp Hope near the mouth of the mine, where they built shrines and composed songs, hoping that rescue efforts would arrive in time to save the men.
President Sebastián Piñera, who read out Gomez's note live on television, said: "All of Chile is crying with excitement and joy."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/23/miners-trapped-alive-chile

starbelgrade

For Christmas, they'll be getting the ghey.

squod

Poor little fellas.

alwaysadub

Is this 'lets repeat a thread' day or something.

Why wasn't i informed?!

rainbowdrop

alwaysadub wrote: »

Is this 'lets repeat a thread' day or something.

Why wasn't i informed?!

My thoughts exactly. Is it Groundhog Day or something?

Einhard

alwaysadub wrote: »

Is this 'lets repeat a thread' day or something.

Why wasn't i informed?!

rainbowdrop wrote: »

My thoughts exactly. Is it Groundhog Day or something?

Eh, it's a different group of 33 Chilean miners trapped until Xmas...


Obviously.

Gummy Panda

4 months without natural light is going to do a lot of mental damage, never mind being trapped in an enclosed space.

mike65

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056009020

bonerm

Gummy Panda wrote: »

4 months without natural light is going to do a lot of mental damage, never mind being trapped in an enclosed space.

Not to mention personality clashes that will arise down there!

Burns: Well, Simpson, I must say, once you've been through something like that with a person, you never want to see that person
again.
Homer: You said it, you weirdo!

Biggins

Update article from The Times:
(Its long so don't say you weren't warned)

Chilean miners tell of survival on tuna and milk

Thirty-three miners trapped nearly 700m (2,300ft) below ground in Chile have spoken of how they have survived on two tablespoons of tuna and half a cup of milk each rationed out every 48 hours.

They men, who were discovered alive on Sunday, have spent the past 18 days in an underground emergency shelter they reached after the entrance to the San José gold and copper mine collapsed on August 5.

Tales from the underground emerged today when rescuers lowered an intercom line through a 3-inch (8cm) diameter bore hole to the men.

President Piñero declared that the discovery that they were still alive – confirmed by a note they attached to a probe lowered into the emergency shelter – had left the whole of Chile “crying with excitement and joy”.

In their intercom conversations the men said that despite more than two weeks in the hot, dank mine, only one of their number had suffered a stomach complaint. They said they had water but were hungry.

“They asked for food, and toothbrushes and something for their eyes,” Laurence Golborne, the Mining Minister, said.

When the men heard that other colleagues who had been in the mine were also alive and had escaped unharmed after the cave-in, the trapped miners could be heard cheering and shouting “Viva Chile!” and then singing the national anthem in an audio recording which was aired on Chilean television.

Paula Newman, a doctor in charge of monitoring the miners’ health, said rescuers had already sent down a glucose solution and medication to prevent ulcers. She said they should wait another day before taking solid foods.

“They are all in perfect health and none are traumatised,” Ms Newman said. “Their complaints are much less than we could have expected.”

However authorities have said they may have to remain in the underground refuge until Christmas when a relief shaft wide enough to get them out is expected to be ready.

Ms Newman said the miners were being asked to answer questions about their medical histories, when they last ate and bathed and who their leaders were to get a more precise picture of the group.

Doctors and psychological experts are now trying to prepare the miners psychologically for the months to come and said they were implementing a plan that included keeping them informed and busy.

The miners reported that a shift foreman named Luis Urzua had assumed leadership of the trapped men.

The men were believed to have used a bulldozer to make a channel of water and had rigged up a makeshift lighting system from a truck engine to illuminate their subterranean surroundings.

The shelter, a living-room-sized chamber off one of the mine’s lower passages that is easily big enough for all 33 men, is far enough from the landslide to remain intact and the men can also walk around below where the rocks fell.

Rescuers have sent down questionnaires to determine each man’s condition, along with medicine and small microphones to enable them to speak to their families during their long wait.

Andre Sougarret, the rescue leader, said they were organising the families into small groups to make their talks as orderly as possible.

One of the miners has already made contact with his family through a note passed up to the surface yesterday.

Mario Gomez, 63, wrote a love letter to his wife, Liliana Ramirez, which said: “My dear Lila, I’m OK, God willing I hope to get out soon, patience and faith...” he wrote. “Even if we have to wait months to communicate ... I want to tell everyone that I’m good and we’ll surely come out OK.”

Yesterday Mrs Ramirez said the family preparing videos for the miners “so that they can see a bit of the family” to keep their spirits up.

“Each moment we are praying,” she told The Times. “But now we’re calmer than before. Everyone is ready, because now we need to focus on making sure they get everything they need.”

Mrs Ramirez also claimed the before the accident her husband – believed to be the oldest of the trapped miners – had planned to retire from working at the mine “because it was too dangerous”.

Source: http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/83/wwwthetimescoukttonewsw.jpg

mecanoman

Big Brother house but underground! There'll be some arguements
alrite, definite mental problems for all, once they get out.