Nie Tingbo's small home is crowded with a dozen anguished
relatives. No one has touched the bowls of rice and fried
vegetables that a neighbor brought over.
Everyone is waiting anxiously for news of the 37-year-old
colliery gas detector, who has been trapped with the 180 mine
workers for almost 100 hours since Friday when two pits flooded in
eastern Shandong Province.
Nie's wife, Zhang Rongxia, sits motionless on the edge of her
bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "He left home before midday
to take the afternoon shift on Friday," she says. "It had been
raining for days and the two bridges over the river close to our
home were underwater."
Zhang had tried to talk her husband out of going to work. "He
always took his job so seriously that he just refused to listen,"
she said.
An estimated 12.6 million cubic meters of water swept through a
50-meter wide breach in the Wenhe River levee and poured down the
Huayuan pit where Nie was working. The adjacent Minggong mine
before the breach was blocked early on Sunday.
When the news came in the wee hours on Saturday, Nie's
68-year-old mother collapsed. She lies on her bed attached to an
intravenous glucose drip.
Nie Tingbo is her favorite child. She's been living with the
couple for years.
Zhang Rongxia visits the mine authorities every day, hoping for
the latest news of the rescue operation. Each time she is
disappointed.
"They simply say they are 'working on it' and never tell me
how," she said. "I just pray the government will help bring my
husband home again. He must not abandon me and our child."
Huangpu Tinghua, deputy general manager of Huayuan Mining Co.
Ltd, explains they have to pick their words carefully to avoid
hurting the families. "Most of them are not ready to face reality
yet."
"Reality" means that there is slim chance of the miners emerging
alive.
Nie's 11-year-old son refuses to say anything. Most of the time
he stares blankly at the scarlet plaque above the door. The four
large Chinese characters read "Xing Fu Zhi Jia", or "a happy
family".
Most of the families live in the Huayuan community close to the
mine.
The tragedy has been an immense blow for the community of 5,500
families: one out of every 50 families has someone trapped down the
pit, and some of the victims are related.
"Please, the government must do something to save the workers
and the mine," says Wang Kuitao, who escaped from almost 1,000
meters below ground in the Huayuan pit, trekking through chest-deep
water. He never went home because his younger brother, an
electrician, remains trapped.
Managers at the Huayuan mine have sent 545 employees to counsel
the families. This is a tough job because at least 60 family
members have been hospitalized with high blood pressure or heart
problems.
Hope for the miners is dimming. Experts with the rescue
headquarters say it would take about 100 days to drain the
floodwater out, even if 5,000 cubic meters is pumped out every
hour.
By Tuesday rescuers had brought down the water level in the
shaft by more than 20 meters. They are still more than 100 meters
from even the nearest 14 miners, who are 208 meters below the
surface.
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2007)