World

Chile choreographs dramatic finish to rescue saga

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-10-13 06:56

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (C, looking down) walks with workers to visit the area where the operation to rescue the 33 trapped miners is being prepared, at the San Jose mine in Copiapo Oct 12, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

Engineers inserted steel piping at the top of the shaft. They stopped sooner than planned after the sleeve became jammed during a probe of the curved top of the hole, which is angled 11 degrees off vertical at its top before plunging like a waterfall. Drillers had to curve the shaft so that it would pass through "virgin" rock, narrowly avoiding collapsed areas and underground open spaces in the overexploited mine, which had operated since 1885.

As each miner is hauled up, a small video camera in the escape capsule will be trained on his face so rescuers can watch for panic attacks. The miners will wear oxygen masks and have two-way voice communication.

Their pulse, skin temperature and respiration rate will be constantly measured through a biomonitor around their abdomens. To prevent blood clotting from the quick ascent, they took aspirin and will wear compression socks.

The miners will also wear sweaters because they'll experience a shift in climate from about 90 degrees Fahrenheit underground to temperatures hovering near freezing if they emerge at night. Those coming out during daylight hours will wear sunglasses.

Seconds before each miner surfaces, an ambulance-like siren will sound and a light will flash for a full minute. Officials are calling this the Genesis alarm, meant simply to alert doctors that a miner is arriving.

Many steps have been taken to protect the emerging miners from the media. Photographers and camera operators will be able to see light but little more from a platform set up more than 300 feet (90 meters) away.

After initial medical checks and visits with family members selected by the miners, the men will be airlifted to the regional hospital in Copiapo, roughly a 10-minute ride away. Two floors have been prepared where the miners will receive physical and psychological exams and be kept under observation in a ward as dark as a movie theater.

Chilean air force Lt. Col. Aldo Carbone, the choppers' squadron commander, said the pilots have night-vision goggles but will not fly unless it is clear of the Pacific Ocean fog that rolls in at night, a notoriously thick, humid blanket Chileans call "the camanchaca." Night traffic on the mine road was banned as a precaution to keep headlights from interfering with the night-vision goggles, and to keep the road clear for ambulances should they be necessary.

Families were urged to wait and prepare to greet the miners at home after a 48-hour hospital stay.

"In Chile, we have huge families," Manalich said, joking that if they weren't stopped, entire football teams of people would crowd into the hospital's wards. He also said that no cameras or interviews will be allowed until the miners are released, unless the miners expressly desire it.

Officials have drawn up a secret list of which miners should come out first, but the order could change after paramedics and a mining expert first descend in the capsule to evaluate the men. First out will be the four miners best able to handle any difficulties and tell their comrades what to expect. Then, the 10 who are weakest or suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dental and respiratory infections and skin lesions from the mine's oppressive humidity.

The first miner to be rescued will be Florencio Avalos, according to his mother, Maria Silva, and uncle Alberto Avalos, who said Pinera told them that.

The last miner out, according the list, will be shift foreman Luiz Urzua, whose leadership was credited for the miners' survival during the 17 days when they were utterly closed off from the outside world. The men stretched an emergency food supply meant to last just 48 hours by taking tiny sips of milk and bites of tuna fish every other day.

Several of Urzua's relatives said that he was last on the list, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid upsetting government officials.

"He's a very good guy -- he keeps everybody's spirits up and is so responsible -- he's going to see this through to the end," said his neighbor Angelica Vicencio, who has led a nightly vigil outside the Urzua home in Copiapo.

The government has promised that its care of the miners won't end for six months at least -- not until they can be sure that each miner has readjusted.