Rescue workers continue their operations to reach the 181 miners
who have been trapped inside two coal mine shafts for 11 days.
Efforts are being made to comfort relatives of the victims.
Floodwaters swept through a 65-meter wide breach in the Wenhe
River levee on Aug. 17, inundating the Huayuan and Minggong mines
and leaving 181 workers trapped underground.
Chinese water resources specialists have blamed the disaster
largely on heavy rain and inadequate flood prevention
facilities.
Nine pumps are busy working near the mines, piping out 4,700
cubic meters of water per hour.
By 6 PM Monday, the water level in the shaft of the Huayuan
coal mine dropped to 59.92 meters, 32.68 meters down from the
highest level. But rescuers have to lower the water level by
another 89.92 meters in order to reach the 172 trapped miners.
In the nearby Minggong coal mine, the water level has been
lowered to 60.14 meters, according to Yang Xingkui, a senior
official with Shandong Provincial Coal Industry Bureau.
"It is hard to predict how many more days it will take to reach
the trapped miners," said the official who is put in charge of the
on-site water pumping efforts.
Apart from the rescue work, consolation work has been underway
for the families and relatives of the trapped workers. A total of
122 medical and social workers have been organized to receive
training courses on skills to address psychological crises, such as
loss of the beloved ones.
Hu Lei, an associate medical doctor with the Shandong Provincial
Psychological Counseling Center, said that the trainees were
arranged to work in groups and each group has five members who are
supposed to service one household by way of listening to the
sorrows of the household members and comforting them.
"As time goes by, the hope of those trapped miners to return
alive becomes dimmer and dimmer," said Hu; "We hope that our
efforts could reduce the psychological harm inflicted on the
relatives of the trapped miners and prevent them from having mental
breakdowns."
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2007)