Utah Mine: Giving Up

Sometimes, one of the hardest things to do is admit that it's time to give up hope.

CASTLE DALE, Utah -- Cody Allred closes his eyes and pictures his father and five other miners sitting in the impenetrable darkness of a collapsed mine waiting for a sign, any sign of rescue.

"I picture my dad wondering `Where the hell are they? Any time now,'" he said.

Federal and mine officials are less hopeful. Knowing there has been no sign of life since the men went missing more than two weeks ago, they say the miners may be forever entombed in the mountain.

"I don't know whether the miners will be found, but I'm not optimistic they will be found alive," Bob Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., co-owner of the mine, said at a news conference Monday night.

Even as the community prepared Tuesday to say goodbye to Dale Black, a rescuer killed while trying to find the men in central Utah's Crandall Canyon mine, the families and officials were at odds over whether enough had been done.

Searchers were expected to finish drilling a fifth hole by Tuesday night, but federal officials didn't anticipate air readings that would indicate enough oxygen to support life.

Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said safety consultants brought in over the weekend have determined the shaking and shifting of the mountain is too risky to let rescuers resume tunneling to try to reach the men, who have been trapped since the Aug. 6 cave-in.

The tunneling stopped after three rescue workers were killed and six were injured when the shaft they were working in collapsed Thursday night.

Murray, who disappeared from public view after that collapse, met Monday with miners' relatives who have accused him of abandoning them and their loved ones.

He said he told the families their relatives would likely remain buried in the mine. "Their reception to me was probably not good. But at some time, the reality must sink in, and I did it as compassionately as I possibly could," he said.

...But Steve Allred, the brother of trapped miner Kerry Allred, believes his brother is alive and said the men need to be recovered.

"My brother is trapped underground and I'm hearing that they're basically giving up, and that's unacceptable," he said. "One way or the other we've got to have closure."

Of course, the family members of the trapped miners want nothing more than to be reunited with their loved ones.

The families are frustrated. I can understand that.

Coming to terms with the death of a loved one, especially in the case of an accident, is so difficult.

Having to deal with the thought that a loved one may still be alive and waiting to be rescued has to be unbearable.

After two weeks, no sounds of life, and several tests that show inadequate oxygen to support life, the reality is the trapped miners are probably not alive.

Still, the uncertainty must be haunting.

I feel sympathy for the families.

"My brother is trapped underground and I'm hearing that they're basically giving up, and that's unacceptable," [Steve Allred] said. "One way or the other we've got to have closure."

Sadly, there sometimes can't be closure, at least not as soon as we'd like.

Valiant efforts have been made to rescue or locate and retrieve the miners.

Three men lost their lives in the attempt.

The conditions are just making it too risky to send in more men in search of the miners.

The families' feelings that the missing miners are being abandoned don't translate into a lack of appreciation for the rescue workers' sacrifice. Not at all. They think of them as "heroes."

But there comes a time when it's unrealistic to hope any longer and even miracles seem to be out of reach.