Hey folks, there’s some news out of Mingo County, W.Va., where heavy rains have caused all sorts of flooding damage — including trapping seven coal miners Saturday inside an underground operation near Gilbert.

The Gazette reported on this in our flood roundup news story, which is posted here.There’s also a report from WSAZ-TV, which talked to the family of at least one of the trapped miners. And the online comments section on their story includes a comment from another miners’ family.

I did some quick checking with state and federal officials, and wanted to update any Coal Tattoo readers who might still be online or be checking in early Sunday morning (And thanks for MSHA’s Amy Louviere and the state Commerce Department’s Jama Jarrett for their very quick replies to my late-night e-mail queries).

Here’s what Amy was able to report to me:

Due to storm runoff following heavy rains, seven miners at the Mountaineer Alma A Mine in Mingo County became trapped underground this morning when they were caught behind a body of water that had accumulated in an area where the coal seam has a large dip.  The miners moved to higher ground, are uninjured and have been in communication with other areas of the mine and the surface.  They have plenty of fresh air, and all have spoken with their families.

As of 11:50 p.m., water continues to be pumped out of the mine.

And here’s the word from Jama, whose duties at the Commerce Department include handling communications for the state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training:

Latest report is that the water is still being pumped with multiple units but still not low enough to allow the miners to exit because more water is seeping in from the rib/walls.

The miners are cold and anxious but have been communicating with coal company officials and others.

The Mountaineer Alma A Mine is operated by Cobra Natural Resources LLC, a subsidiary of Abingdon, Va.-based Alpha Natural Resources. Alpha bought it from Arch Coal two years ago. The operation produced more than 600,000 tons of coal last year with about 130 workers, according to MSHA figures.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 12:37 am and is filed under Mine Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.