The one thing that saved the PA miners, was that an individual was able to calculate exactly where the trapped miners would hole up, and when they drilled the air hole, they hit that area perfectly; exactly where the miners were. I haven't followed this disaster on the news so I have no idea whether they were able to do this same thing with the trapped WVA miners. Let's pray that will happen.
OFF TOPIC, but in reference to coal mining in PA. As kids in PA, our swimming holes were all flooded coal strip mines, and flooded coal mines, that left ponds large enough, and deep enough to swim in. We even had burning mines less than a mile from where I grew up. That's where coal that is burning 1000's of feet underground. I think they finally managed to extinguish that burning mine area in the last 15 years. Burning mines were exceptionally difficult to extinguish.
My mother's second husband, when he died in 1999, left a very small share of an 87 acre PA parcel purchased in the early 1900's, to us (my mother's five children). A coal company wanted to buy the property so they could mine it as it was next to their mining area, and wanted to buy everyone out. Their attorneys, as attorneys often do, used scare tactics. and they were able to get enough people to accept their paltry offer, that they were able to press the issue in court, to obtain the rest of the property from the remainder of us. This took years --about 4-5 years; I was the only holdout in my family--the coal company's attorneys had most people believing that they would end up owing court costs/lawyers fees if they hesitated in selling. After it went through the PA court system, with various referees, and whatever else,. required, I received 3 and 1/2 times as much as my brothers and sisters; of course my share, received just a few months ago, was still less than $100, but that wasn't the point. Being the youngest has a lot to do with it.
