They're Alive!!!

Prayers and hope.

Determined and skilled men fighting for the lives of children can work miracles. The faces on those men speak worlds

weldoninhio wrote: »

Anything he’s going through is of his own making. I’d be more worried about what the parent of the children are going through due to this guys actions. Or what the family of the navy diver are going through having lost a loved one did to the actions of a wreck less coach.

And how is this helping the situation?

No one forced the children in.It is a local custom and afaik none of the parents, who reallly are only ones with a real right to be aggrieved, has spoken out against the coach

and the navy diver was a volunteer who knew very well the risks he was taking

A detailled article from RTE; with photo

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2018/0707/976971-thai-cave-boys/

More than 100 chimneys are being drilled into the mountainside in a frantic bid to reach a Thai youth football team trapped in a cave complex below, the head of the rescue mission said today.

The unprecedented rescue effort is attempting to establish new ways to extract the 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach from above, if the underground chambers flood and it is deemed too risky to evacuate the team by diving out through the submerged passageways.

"Some (of the chimneys) are as deep as 400 metres... but they still cannot find their location yet," Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters, adding the mission lacked the technology "to pinpoint where they are staying".

"We estimate that (they) are 600 metres down, but we don't know the (exact) target," he said.

On the question of dipping oxygen levels in the cave, he said rescuers had managed to establish a line to pump in fresh air and had also withdrawn non-essential workers from chamber three - where the rescue base is - to preserve levels inside the cave.

The "Wild Boar" football team have been trapped inside the Tham Luang cave complex for two weeks.

Meanwhile, the coach has offered his "apologies to the parents" of the boys in a scrawled note released by the Thai Navy.

Ekkapol Chantawong was for nine days the only adult with the children - aged 11 to 16 - until they were discovered on a muddy ledge by rescue divers on Monday.

"To all the parents, all the kids are still fine. I promise to take the very best care of the kids," he said in a note given to a diver yesterday and published on the Thai Navy SEAL Facebook page today.

"Thank you for all the moral support and I apologise to the parents."

Other touching notes signed by members of the team were directed to their families, many of whom have kept an anxious vigil outside the cave for a fortnight.

"Don't worry dad and mum," said a note from one of the boys who gave his nickname as "Bew".

"I have been away for two weeks but will come back and help you sell your stuff." His family are shopkeepers.

Another note, from "Dom" said he was "fine but the weather here is a little cold".

The boys are being trained in the basics of diving in case the flood waters force authorities into a sudden evacuation through twisting and jagged passageways.

But late yesterday the authorities said they are not ready to dive out.

Mr Ekkapol's message is the first from the coach, whose role in the team's predicament has split Thai social media.

Many have lauded him after reports that he gave his share of food to the kids before they were located and helped them get through nine days in the darkness.

Others have criticised him for agreeing to take the young boys into the cave during the monsoon season.

The group entered the cave on 23 June and got trapped as floodwaters tore in.

A massive rescue operation is under way, with high-powered pumps working round-the-clock to reduce the water level inside the cave, while rescue experts weigh their options to extract the children.

acai berry wrote: »

Thanks for the update (article) Graces7. Praying that they all get out safely.

Same here.