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dierna
Member
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# Posted: 4 Jan 2006 01:08
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Earlier tonight some of you might have heard that they found 12 miners from the W. Virigina coal mine explosion alive. Well the reports were wrong.
Earlier in the day they had found 1 of the bodies in a mining car. Then 2 hours ago all news reports stated that they found the remaining 12 alive.
And now they are saying that only one is alive. He is in critical condition.
The family members are of course peeved at having been lied to.
http://news.yahoo.com/s....wM3MTY-
Family members learned early Wednesday that 11 of the 12 coal miners who were initially thought to have survived an explosion in a coal mine have died.
Families learned of the deaths from mine officials more than three hours after Gov. Joe Manchin said he had been told 12 of the miners survived the disaster. The sole survivor of the disaster was hospitalized, a doctor said.
International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield told the families that only one miner, Randal McCloy, had survived the explosion.
Hatfield told the families gathered at the Sago Baptist Church that "there had been a lack of communication, that what we were told was wrong and that only one survived," said John Groves, whose brother Jerry Groves was one of the trapped miners.
At that point, chaos broke out in the church and a fight started.
Hatfield said the erroneous information spread rapidly when people overheard cell phone calls between rescuers and the rescue command center. In reality, rescuers had confirmed finding 12 miners and were checking their vital signs, he said.
"The initial report from the rescue team to the command center indicated multiple survivors," Hatfield said during a news conference. "That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center. It quickly got out of control."
Hatfield said the company waited to correct the information until it knew more about the rescue.
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deanna
Member
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# Posted: 4 Jan 2006 04:26
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Having my "roots" in W. Virginia, and the fact that cousins and uncles were all coal miners, my grandfather was a coal miner, my great grandfather was a coal miner, I can fully appreciate how devastating this news is to the families involved. The mine those guys work at is the exact same mine my (soon to be ex) uncle works at. The town has been in shock for a few days now. Many of the West Virginia towns seem to function in the past, you know? There really are still company towns in that state and much of the work is factory work, which is why the coal mining industry still thrives today.
My mom called in tears last night cause some of guys are young kids that are her friends grandsons. It's a really really sad time for those folks.
Keep them in your prayers.
On another note, this is exactly why I hate the media rushing to report stories without proper confirmation, they've been doing this exact form of journalism for years. I can't tell you how many times I've followed a story only to hear it change alot of times before the end. It makes it all sadder, really.
~Kim
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jadzia_jones1
Member
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# Posted: 4 Jan 2006 11:02
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For these poor families, who were under the impression that there loved ones have died, and prayed that by some miracle there prayers would be answered... and that there families would be safe and come home to them... News came to them that a miracle has indeed happened. Unfortunately news came later, oopsy we made a mistake, all of the miners are dead, bar one who is critical.
So really, these families loved ones have died twice..
Media think !!!!!
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marnal
Member
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# Posted: 5 Jan 2006 12:43
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If you listened to the news conference held yesterday, it really was a terrible miscommunication. Tragic for the families but I can't see that any one person is to blame. I felt immensely sorry for the poor sod hosting the conference as he clearly was having difficulty continuing to speak.
A terrible tragedy all round. Deep-shaft mining is a dangerous buisness.
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jedimkypd
Member
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# Posted: 5 Jan 2006 14:00
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I can't believe how they made that mistake. Of all the mistakes they could have made, they just might've announced the worst. It's a terrible loss and I can imagine, very tragic. My grief goes with those families who lost someone.
~KypD (  )
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polson
Member
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# Posted: 5 Jan 2006 22:30
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Um, maybe I'm missing something way up here in the snowless north (yay! ), but I only heard one report with one survivor.
Now, I don't know if the stations up here also broadcasted the false report, but if they didn't...isn't it rather, well, shameful that another country would have researched the incident further? If we did make the wrong report too...how come we don't hold our media to a higher standard? Who are they accountable to? If it's the people, what can we do about that? And how many other false reports have been made that we don't know about? Here's the scary question...can we trust our tvs?
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