A little bit of good news, after all the negativity of the recent days:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thaila...-alive-today-in-tham-luang-nang-non-2018-7-2/

Rescue divers found 12 boys and their soccer coach alive in a cave after the soccer team went missing more than a week earlier in northern Thailand. The rescue teams spent much of Monday making preparations for what was hoped would be the final push in their search for team. It was, and hours later Chiang Rai provincial Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn confirmed that all of the 13 missing individuals had been found alive.

 

A little bit of good news, after all the negativity of the recent days:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thaila...-alive-today-in-tham-luang-nang-non-2018-7-2/

And BTW ... I feel sorry for the poor teacher who took them there ...

 

Good people are still on out there despite the difficult situations

 

A little bit of good news, after all the negativity of the recent days:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thaila...-alive-today-in-tham-luang-nang-non-2018-7-2/

I was really fearing how this story was so likely to turn out.

 

I was really fearing how this story was so likely to turn out.

It's not over yet, they have to get them out first.
Max.

 

It's not over yet, they have to get them out first.
Max.

Still time for tragedy, yes. I must be a pessimist but I figured they were gone when I first heard the story days ago. Now I’m optimistic.

 

This is a new development ... it seems that getting them out might take a while:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44692813​

Twelve boys and their football coach trapped in a Thai cave have been found alive but will need learn to dive or wait months for flooding to recede before they can get out, the army says.

 

This is a new development ... it seems that getting them out might take a while:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44692813​

Diving is easy. The choice is a no brainer.

 

I can only imagine the logistical problems facing them.

1) They have to get a medical team in to assess the conditions of the boys and treat any that need medical attention.
2) They have re-hydrate the boys and supply nourishment.
3) They have to provide trauma counselling and make them comfortable for the days, weeks, months that may still lie ahead.
4) They have to provide food, water and fresh air... this could go on for months. The rainy season does not end until October.
5) To dive out, they have to train each boy in the proper use of diving equipment and oxygen tanks. It is possible that some boys do not know how to swim.
6) They would have to navigate through very narrow passages with sharp bends in murky waters (visibility is described as diving in coffee).
7) They would have to belay the boys one at a time using 4km of ropes and a rescue guide along the way.

"easy" would not be the word to describe this.

 

I can only imagine the logistical problems facing them.

1) They have to get a medical team in to assess the conditions of the boys and treat any that need medical attention.
2) They have re-hydrate the boys and supply nourishment.
3) They have to provide trauma counselling and make them comfortable for the days, weeks, months that may still lie ahead.
4) They have to provide food and water... this could go on for months. The rainy season does not end until December.
5) To dive out, they have to train each boy in the proper use of diving equipment and oxygen tanks. It is possible that some boys do not know how to swim.
6) They would have to navigate through very narrow passages with sharp bends in murky waters (visibility is described as diving in coffee).
7) They would have to belay the boys one at a time using 4km of ropes and a rescue guide along the way.

"easy" would not be the word to describe this.

And... the last person to leave that cavern will be the soccer coach that took them there in the first place...

 

And... the last person to leave that cavern will be the soccer coach that took them there in the first place...

And I genuinely hope that he receives a hero's welcome when he comes out.

 

And I genuinely hope that he receives a hero's welcome when he comes out.

I hope he does, there's plenty of merit behind the work of protecting and taking care of those kids ... but then again, one has to admit that it was also a bad idea to enter those caves during the rain season. A mean, it's easy enough to watch the weather report nowadays before going in to an excursion such as that one, isn't it?

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...charges-for-getting-team-trapped-in-cave.html

If I were the father of one of those kids, I'd have very mixed feelings about that coach...

 

6) They would have to navigate through very narrow passages with sharp bends in murky waters (visibility is described as diving in coffee).
7) They would have to belay the boys one at a time using 4km of ropes and a rescue guide along the way.

That's what I get for not reading the story. I had no idea they have to traverse 4K. That distance might not be a big deal, but isn't trivial, in open water but this is not that. They'd likely need two tanks and maybe more to have adequate air for the time it would take.

 

Copied from The Guardian:

2018 Jul 03 1143 UTC

Ben Raymenants, who was 400m behind the British divers when the boys were found, suggests they are too weak to attempt a dive rescue for the moment.

Speaking to Sky News he said: “The condition of the boys is quite stable. They are mentally quite fit, better than anticipated. They are very weak though. They did not have any solid food for 10 days, just drinking water dripping from the walls. There are now two navy Seal doctors giving them food slowly, enabling them to get their powers back. And then see if they can evacuate the boys.

“First the boys need to get their strength again, because right now they can’t do anything at all. They have muscle atrophy, they can barely stand up. So they are feeding them slowly to get back their strength.”

Raymenants described reaching the boys as “very taxing”.

He said:

It is an extreme cave system. It is very long, one of the longest in Thailand, and its a complex system of tunnels.

The Thai navy is not that specialised in cave diving, so we were taking turns with the British team in laying fixed ropes, 2.5km into that tunnel making a way to this room where we expected the kids would be.

Raymenants said the boys had made their way though the tunnel as part of a local initiation rite.

They had no food. They left their backpacks and their shoes before wading in there, trying to go the end of the tunnel like an initiation for local young boys to go to the end of the tunnel and write your name on the wall and then make it back.

A flash flood because of sudden heavy rain locked them in, with no shoes and no food. They had just one flash light which obviously ran out.

There was a 30-year-old map made by French speleologists, with some corrections from British speleologists. That was the only basis we had. It was pure speculation that they could be there in one of these two rooms. One is called Pattaya beach, and the other is another dry air pocket. It was all speculation and pure luck that they were there.

Raymenats outlined three options for getting the boys out:

One is to teach them to scuba dive. It is a least a 2.5km swim through narrow restrictions of a complex cave system. This is not the easiest solution.

They are also trying to pump the cave empty with giant pumps which was working to some extent. But they are expecting heavy rains in the next two days.

The last option is sitting it out and waiting. Two medical officers in the Thai navy have volunteered to have themselves locked in with enough food and supplies to sit there for three or four months until the water drops again.

He cautioned against the dive option:

This is one of the more extreme cave dives that I have done. It is very far, and very complex. There is current. The visibility can be zero at times. So getting boys through there one by one, and the risk that they will panic is there. They can’t even swim. This has been done before with pulling people out of wrecks alive. So it is not impossible, but the issue is the restrictions - just one person can fit through. So guiding a boy through in front of you could be quite challenging, especially if the rain picks up and there’s a strong flow and the visibility reduces to zero. When it starts raining the flow is so hard you can barely swim against it.

It took us four hours just to swim to the point where we had to tie off the lines. It is really long swim. So it is really hard to give an opinion on what is the best solution.

I think the weather is going to be the deciding factor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2018 Jul 03 1048 UTC

Ben Reymenants, a cave diver who’s part of the international team helping the rescue efforts, is talking up the option of pumping water out the cave.

Speaking to NBC News Today he said:

“They can’t swim, so they definitely can’t dive…The easiest [option] would be that they [people trying to rescue those in the cave] keep pumping the water out of the cave. They need another three or four feet so they can literally float them out with life jackets, but time is not on their side. They’re expecting heavy thunderstorms and rain which might flood the entire cave system, making the rescue impossible at that stage.”

If that does happen Reymenants said the boys and the coach could be expected to be in the cave for “up to 3-4 months.” He added, “Two Thai Navy doctors have volunteered to be locked up inside the cave…a huge sacrifice.”

Asked about the condition of the boys he said: “They are actually quite responsive…but they are very weak and very skinny.”

 

Good idea moving this discussion to a new thread, Mr Chips ... it will take a while before we get to see how this story ends ...

 

The cave situation reminds me of this, only worse:

The 2010 Copiapó mining accident, also known then as the "Chilean mining accident", began on Thursday, 5 August 2010 with a cave-in at the San José copper–gold mine, located in the Atacama Desert 45 kilometers (28 mi) north of the regional capital of Copiapó, in northern Chile. Thirty-three men, trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft) underground and 5 kilometers (3 mi) from the mine's entrance via spiraling underground ramps, were rescued after 69 days.[1][2]

 

Unless they get that water down soon, I fear a tragedy unfolding in slow motion. The worst possible scenario. Food and medicine deliveries will help, but may not be enough in the end.

They need some geologists and other expertise to get down there ASAP to figure out how to drain that cave.

 

Unless they get that water down soon, I fear a tragedy unfolding in slow motion. The worst possible scenario. Food and medicine deliveries will help, but may not be enough in the end.

They need some geologists and other expertise to get down there ASAP to figure out how to drain that cave.

They're supposedly doing their best to drain that cave right now... but I fail to see how they're going to do that fast enough without having to blast a hole through the mountain...

 

I can imagine two possibilities:

1) cutting a channel through the mountain to drain the cave
2) boring a shaft into the cave system to create a new exit

 

I can imagine two possibilities:

1) cutting a channel through the mountain to drain the cave
2) boring a shaft into the cave system to create a new exit

And both options will be heavily opposed by conservationists, I bet... not to mention their cost...