Search for 6 Utah miners is suspended

Cybergal · Sep 1, 2007

Search for 6 Utah miners is suspended
9/1/07

SALT LAKE CITY - The search for six men trapped in a coal mine during a cave-in nearly four weeks ago is effectively over, after a robotic camera failed to provide any useful information, a federal mine official said Friday.
"We talked with the families and we basically told them we're pretty much out of options," said Rich Kulczewski, spokesman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Mining officials told the families that the robotic camera was successfully dropped down the fourth of seven holes bored into the mountain, but that it quickly became stuck in the mud as it moved over piles of debris, Kulczewski said.
Officials also could not retrieve the camera and had to leave it stuck about 50 feet from the surface, he said.
The steadfast families had a difficult time with the news, said Colin King, an attorney serving as a spokesman for all six families. "There were tears," he said.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070901/ap_on_re_us/utah_mine_collapse;_ylt=AsAc8oIkrNJrVfGafWOs_YSs0NUE

Cybergal · Sep 3, 2007

Miners' families face unique grief
9/2/07

SALT LAKE CITY - The Crandall Cranyon mine has become a tomb, leaving the families of the six men trapped inside with no clear way to say goodbye.
With the search for the miners lost in an Aug. 6 collapse suspended, relatives are now faced with finding a way to grieve for and remember Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez even though the men's bodies were never found.
The experience of having a loved one permanently entombed in a mountain is much like having a family member lost at sea or missing in action in war, said Dale Lund, a professor at the University of Utah who is an expert on bereavement.
"It's pretty hard to come to that closure when you don't see the body and don't have the certainty of what really happened," he said. "In this particular case, you probably have more uncertainty. Even if you believed the person is deceased at this point, it's unclear about how the death experience occurred."
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_re_us/utah_mine_collapse;_ylt=Ar_vDgE1Wo6GHpR26e3bJgqs0NUE

GuysLady · Sep 6, 2007

"I think (a) memorial may be a good way for the family and communities who have been touched by this tragedy to move toward closure and healing,"

I don't think in this case there is really any such thing as "closure". Even not knowing these families personally, there is no sense of finality to it. It may sound odd, but a widow's emotional thinking would be to deny it, no matter how impossible it may seem. A case of "there is no body. How do I know he is not coming home tomorrow?"

I really don't know how to bring about some sense of closure in this situation. They will never be able to provide a "cause" of death, a body, etc. But you can't very well ask someone else to go back in there, to risk their lives to recover bodies. Because at this point they are almost certainly deceased.

My heart and prayers go out to everyone involved in this tragedy.

Bonnie

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