Chile’s trapped miners understand weight of situation

Chile's trapped miners need to be thin for rescue to be successful.
COPIAPÓ, Chile - The 33 miners trapped at the San José gold and copper mine for nearly three weeks have another challenge: making sure they are skinny.

How thin? Thirty-five inches (90 centimeters) around the waist - and not an inch to spare. That's because if they are any wider, they may not be able to squeeze through the escape tunnel that's being dug through about a half-mile of rock to the area where they've been residing since Aug. 5.

Dr. Jaime Manalich, the country's health minister, said rescue officials are forming a plan to make sure the miners do not gain weight as drillers carve a tunnel that could take up to four months to reach them.

"We're working to determine a secure area where the miners can manage things," he said, as reported by The Associated Press. "The space they're in actually has about two kilometers of galleries to walk around in," he said. "We hope to define a secure area where they can establish various places - one for resting and sleeping, one for diversion, one for food, another for work."

Manalich said a daily program is being created for the men, which includes "singing, games of movement, playing cards. We want them to record songs, to make videos, to create works of theater for the family."

The miners were told for the first time by officials on Aug. 25 it could take up to four months for rescue workers to complete the escape tunnel, Manalich said. The workers took the news well, he said.

The escape tunnel is expected to be about 26 inches (66 centimeters) wide and will use a basket to hoist the men to the surface. The margin of error is very slim, officials said.

Officials have said the men have lost weight, but how much is unclear.

But this much is: During the 17 days before they were contacted by the rescue team, each consumed two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk and a piece of peach every other day.

After all, the men had to share two days' worth of emergency rations.

"All of Chile had hopes for a miracle," María Cifuentes, a 48-year-old Santiago resident, said. "These people will always have the support [of Chile] because living through a miracle like this does not happen every day."

President Sebastián Piñera promises help is on the way

The men haven't been allowed to talk to their families as of Aug. 25, but the leader of the trapped miners, Luis Urzúa, spoke with President Sebastián Piñera on the two-way communication line linking the miners to the outside world.

"Rescue us as quickly as possible, and don't abandon us," Urzúa, 54, asked Sebastián Piñera, the AP reported. "Don't leave us alone ... we hope that all of Chile shows its strength to help us get out of this hell."

Sebastián Piñera responded: "You will not be left alone, you have not been alone. The government is with you all, the entire country is with you all."

Urzúa said the miners were scared when the mine's main shaft came crashing down.

"It was frightening. We felt like the mountain was coming down on us, without knowing what happened. Thanks to God, we still hadn't gathered together to go out to have lunch," he said, as reported by the AP. "At 20 minutes before 2 (the miners' standard lunch hour), the mountain came down on top of us. For about four or five hours, we couldn't see a thing. After that, we saw that we were trapped by an enormous rock that filled the entire passage of the tunnel."

Jorge Barahona said he was confident his cousin Urzúa would emerge as a leader because Urzúa's father was killed when Urzúa was a teenager, forcing him to grow up quickly.

"All the guys with him have an experience of surviving, their work is survival," said Barahona while he waited at the rescue site at dawn, the AP reported. "He's the leader of everything down there. They know before something like this happens that there is somebody who will always lead."

Guidance also is coming from Mario Gómez, who is the oldest among the trapped miners.

"A 63-year old man has experience and will to live," said Marisol Verdugo, a 40-year-old Santiago resident. "In Chile, senior citizens are ignored, neglected, but the firm and precise instructions of an experienced leader have been the difference between living and dying."

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