West Virginia mine explorers still missing as rescuers dig deeper
By Brendan O'Brien and Dan Whitcomb
(Reuters) - Rescue teams in West Virginia have gone some 11,000 feet into an abandoned coal mine in the Appalachian Mountains without finding three people who have been lost inside for four days, law enforcement officials said on Monday.
Erica Treadway, 31, Kayla Williams, 25, and Cody Beverly, 21, have been stranded deep inside the Rock House Powellton mine near the town of Clear Creek since they crawled through a ventilation shaft into the caverns on Saturday after riding to the site on all-terrain vehicles.
A fourth person who was with the group when they entered the mine, 43-year-old Eddie Williams, found his way out on Monday to alert authorities that his friends were missing, Raleigh County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Mark McCray said.
"They are in there, in the dark and probably lost ... it's complete and total blackness," McCray told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Search and rescue crews have hunted for the missing thrill-seekers since Sunday and have gone about 11,000 feet (3,400 m) deep into the mine so far, McCray said.
One team entered through a main portal in Boone County after it was cleared in the last day, McCray said, while two other four-man squads used a second entrance in Raleigh County.
Workers were also pumping fresh air inside with fans, allowing rescue teams to expand their search, McCray said.
"I believe I can speak for most of the community when saying that we're grieving, we're anxious, we're hopeful, we're tired and wore out but we got a lot of hope," Greg Scarbro, grandfather of one of the missing, told Metro News, a media outlet in West Virginia.
On Monday, Justice visited family members at a local community center and rescue workers before they went into the mine.
"All West Virginians who are driving, riding ATV’s, or hiking near abandoned mines please STOP entering the abandoned mines. This is extremely irresponsible behavior that puts our first responders and mine safety crews in unsafe situations when they should be focused on ensuring safety at active mines," Justice said in a written statement on Sunday.
The West Virginia National Guard along with several local and state agencies are helping in the rescue, the governor said.
An explosion at a coal mine in same area in 2010 killed 29 people in the worst U.S. mine disaster in four decades.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Matthew Lewis and DAvid Gregorio)
