'It Was Terrible': 3 Rescued From Abandoned Mine

Group had been missing for more than 100 hours
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 13, 2018 1:34 AM CST
3 Missing People Found Alive in West Virginia Mine
The scene outside of the Salamy Memorial Center in Whitesville, W.Va., on Wednesday, December 12, 2018.   (Craig Hudson/The Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)

Relief in West Virginia: Three people who had been missing in a coal mine since Saturday have been found alive and brought to the surface safely. Cody Beverly, 21, Kayla Williams, 25, and Erica Treadway, 31, were brought to the surface at 7:30pm Wednesday, about an hour after rescue squads made contact with them, and taken for medical treatment, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. The trio had spent more than 100 hours in the Rock House Powellton mine in Clear Creek, which was abandoned around two years ago. During the rescue operation, crews pumped air into the mine and worked to remove standing water.

A fourth member of the group, 43-year-old Eddie Williams, escaped from the mine Monday and told rescuers the other three were still alive. He was the only experienced coal miner in the group. Authorities believe the group trespassed in the Raleigh County mine to scavenge for copper. Treadway, a mother of three, said "I love you all" as she was loaded into an ambulance, NBC News reports. "They never lost faith, your babies," her mother told her. Beverly, the youngest member of the group, told reporters he was doing "fine." Asked what it was like inside the mine, he said: "It was terrible" and became upset. (This Arizona man had to fight off rattlesnakes while trapped at the bottom of a mine shaft.)

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