Rescue workers continue their operations to reach the 181 miners who have been trapped inside two coal mine shafts for 11 days. Efforts are being made to comfort relatives of the victims.

Floodwaters swept through a 65-meter wide breach in the Wenhe River levee on Aug. 17, inundating the Huayuan and Minggong mines and leaving 181 workers trapped underground.

Chinese water resources specialists have blamed the disaster largely on heavy rain and inadequate flood prevention facilities.

Nine pumps are busy working near the mines, piping out 4,700 cubic meters of water per hour.

By 6 PM Monday, the water level in the shaft of the Huayuan coal mine dropped to 59.92 meters, 32.68 meters down from the highest level. But rescuers have to lower the water level by another 89.92 meters in order to reach the 172 trapped miners.

In the nearby Minggong coal mine, the water level has been lowered to 60.14 meters, according to Yang Xingkui, a senior official with Shandong Provincial Coal Industry Bureau.

"It is hard to predict how many more days it will take to reach the trapped miners," said the official who is put in charge of the on-site water pumping efforts.

Apart from the rescue work, consolation work has been underway for the families and relatives of the trapped workers. A total of 122 medical and social workers have been organized to receive training courses on skills to address psychological crises, such as loss of the beloved ones.

Hu Lei, an associate medical doctor with the Shandong Provincial Psychological Counseling Center, said that the trainees were arranged to work in groups and each group has five members who are supposed to service one household by way of listening to the sorrows of the household members and comforting them.

"As time goes by, the hope of those trapped miners to return alive becomes dimmer and dimmer," said Hu; "We hope that our efforts could reduce the psychological harm inflicted on the relatives of the trapped miners and prevent them from having mental breakdowns."

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2007)