Dead miners’ families irate
Great joy turned to deep sorrow and rage Wednesday morning when mining families here were told inaccurately that 12 of the 13 miners trapped in a coal mine were alive only to be informed, hours later, that they were in fact dead.
It was all the result of a “miscommunication,” a mining company official said. He and others thought they heard a transmission from rescuers that the 12 were alive.
When International Coal Group chief executive Ben Hatfield, gave them the bad news—that the 12 had died 13,000 feet into the earth three hours after the false story somehow was released —relatives reacted with fury. Hatfield needed a police escort to get out of the church. “We were thankful the police were there,” said the pastor, the Rev. Wease Day.
The families became more enraged when they learned that officials waited several hours to tell them those they believed were alive were dead.
When the relatives finally got word, they erupted, according to Hatfield and family members interviewed. Cheers turned to tears and then fury and rage. “It was scary, like a mob scene,” Lynnette Roby told CNN.
Then, family by family, they began emerging arm-in-arm from the church that had served as their refuge. Some were doubled-up with grief. Others just wept. Others were stone-faced and silent.