Holy Shit - re miners

[malaise]

One miner left a detailed note with a time line showing that they survived ten hours after the explosion.
MSNBC

[WatchWhatISay]

1. I am surprised it wasn't a lot longer

Seems odd that the one who lived could have outlived the rest of them by that long a time period.

[rodeodance]

2. a younger strong age and healthy lungs have a lot to do with length

of survival--even if breathing the same air.

[Fridays Child]

3. That doesn't make sense to me, either.

It's been suggested that the other miners shared their oxygen with him, since he was the youngest among them and he has small children. But I guess we won't know the facts unless and until Randal McCloy recovers well enough to tell us what happened down there.

[TheWraith]

4. It's "at least ten hours"

It's not like they wrote down their own times of death. One guy made three entries on a letter, dated in a period from 5 to 10 hours after the explosion.

[tonka023]

5. i bet they survived longer than that

I'd think he'd have survived longer than he could have
written. I mean, you can't certainly ever compare
mining disasters, but I have a relative who survived
being trapped after an explosion for 18hrs. Poor
guy, this whole thing has brought up some horrifying
memories for him. He was a rescuer and got trapped
by a second explosion when he found the miners who
were trapped by the first exposion. Several died beside
him while he waited for rescue.

[hedgehog]

6. I don't want to be dancing on the graves of these men, but

There are stories circulating that it took 12 hours to get a rescue team on-site. IF - and that's a big if- it turns out that the rescue group was hampered because George cut funding and/or stuffed the agency with his cronies, he's in big trouble. This scandal is small enough for people to understand without getting lost trying to track money or understand the problem. There is no problem debating national security issues. The response to trapped coal miners is such a part of our national heritage it's practically instinctive. If those men died because the team got there late, and if the team go there late because of George......