Thai officials believe 12 boys missing in cave are alive

[Nereus]

Drilling starts to pump more water out of cave

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... ut-of-cave

Workers are drilling a hole near the entrance of Tham Luang to quickly drain water from the flooded cave and clear the way for divers to resume their search of 13 trapped persons.

The drilling decision came during the meeting on Thursday morning after the rescue operation was stalled by the floodwater in the cave.

Kobchai Boonarana, the deputy director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said drilling equipment from the Groundwater Resources Department and private companies were running at full capacity to drain water from the cave where 12 young footballers and their coach have been trapped since Saturday afternoon.

Divers have to suspend the mission as water inside still blocks the passage to Pattaya Beach, a high ground deep inside the cave where the boys and the coach might be waiting for help.

Rain came down on the rescue site in the Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai after the group was reported missing on Saturday night. It rained again on Thursday evening.

Rescuers were also scouring the mountain in search of alternative entrances to the flooded cave.

"There's not much we can do right now,'' Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said, adding that a key passageway was completely flooded. "We have to wait for the water level to decrease. [Divers] can't do anything right now.''

Thai rescuers have been joined by a US military team and British cave experts. At a morning briefing, the Thai Seals explained to the US team that water levels had been rising overnight at a rate of about 15 centimetres per hour, complicating efforts to squeeze through tight passages, some of which require the divers to contort their bodies around L-shaped bends.

Gen Anupong said there are three locations that rescuers are looking at and they will have to work with the Geological Department and their equipment to explore further, using small cameras for example.

Anmar Mirza, national coordinator of the National Cave Rescue Commission in the United States and editor of the book Manual of US Cave Rescue Techniques, said that in a situation like this it would seem there were only two things that could be done: pump the water down and search for alternative entrances.

If there were a high-quality map, drilling would be another possibility, but that is extremely difficult for a number of reasons and could also take days to weeks, he said, adding that it was important not to take needless risks.

Mr Mirza said the boys' youth and health is to their advantage and if the cave is not too cold, they should be able to survive four to five days with no water and a month or more with water but no food.

drilling.jpg (55.93 KiB) Viewed 606 times

[Nereus]

Search teams to forge north British cave divers urge change of route

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... orge-north

Rescue teams were pinning their hopes on a new route north of the entrance of Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district believed to be a safe haven for 12 boys and their football coach who went missing on Saturday.

The teams are still hopeful they will find the team members alive.
Deputy national police chief Wirachai Songmetta led 132 police and rescue workers to survey Doi Pha Mee, which is north of the main entrance of the cave to search for possible points of access to the cave.

The change in the search route followed the advice of three British cave divers, who arrived on Wednesday evening to help in the operation.

Currently, the main rescue and search operations are under way to the west of the cave's entrance, with the location inside the cave dubbed "Monk's Series" as the destination.
It was believed the missing people might have opted to venture north of the cave's entrance rather than head to the location in the West dubbed as "Pattaya Beach".

To the north, they will reach an area of dry ground in a chamber which is about one kilometre away from the cave's entrance, compared to Pattaya Beach, which is about seven kilometres away.

Pol Gen Wirachai said residents told him there is a chamber lying in the north of the cave. It is as high as 60 metres and 20 metres wide. This location has become a new focal point of attention because a cave chamber may have a ceiling crevice.

The 132 policemen and rescue workers were divided into four search teams to survey the area separately. One team used GPS to explore locations on the mountain terrain. Another team was led by locals who said they had seen the ceiling crevice. Another team climbed up and surveyed a mossy rock cliff which means there was dampness coming from in the lee of the hill.

Pol Gen Wirachai added three new ceiling crevices had been found during the survey. Two of them were clogged. A drone will be used to explore the third one.

On social media, some netizens also believed that the 12 boys and their coach might be heading north of the cave's entrance to escape rising waters which blocked the entrance.

That would lead them to Doi Pha Mee which provides an area of dry ground for them. The location is near a source of a stream so water levels are not high.

"However, if the boys and their coach were heading north to find a way out, they would face an increasingly steep slope and they will become even more exhausted,'' a Facebook user said, adding that if they continued on in this direction, they would reach a small cave called "Monk's Series''.

"By now, the boys must be very tired and water may be the only form of sustenance. They may be experiencing wet and cold conditions inside the cave.''

Suttisak Soralump, a geotechnical engineer from Kasetsart University, said percussion drilling equipment will be used to bore holes of 10-12 centimetres wide through the hillside of Tham Luang cave so glowsticks and recording devices will be put in to explore the cave inside. It will take one day to drill a stretch of 100 metres to reach inside.

PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP) was using two drones to survey the exterior structure of the cave and the information will be used to determine where to drill. The drones with 30x optical zooms, fitted with heat sensor equipment can also take three-dimensional pictures.

Thanes Weerasiri, president of the Engineering Institute of Thailand, said plans are to survey ceiling crevices near Doi Pha Mee. People who previously explored the cave inside said there was a steep slope leading up to the ceiling. Drones were being deployed to explore to see how wide the crevices were and whether they could be enlarged, Mr Thanes said.

He also said efforts will be made to drill diagonally into the left side of Tham Luang cave near so-called Pattaya Beach, a dry ground chamber where the missing people might have been waiting for help.

But before the drilling gets under way, electromagnetic waves will be used to examine the rock structures, he said.
Persistent rain overnight raised water levels inside Tham Luang cave and rescuers were forced to pause their search for 12 boys and their football coach. The five-hour storm from Wednesday into the early hours Thursday pushed water levels in the cave higher.

Floodwaters inside Tham Luang cave, exacerbated by continued rain, are blocking attempts to reach the teen footballers and their coach.

Authorities said the 10-kilometre-long cave in Tham Luang cave had four chambers and floodwater had almost reached the main entrance of the cave early Thursday. Consequently, rescuers had to remove their equipment from the cave and wait for the flood level to subside. Local weathermen expected the rain would stop late in the morning.

Outside the cave, 132 police officers were deployed with sniffer dogs trying to find other openings into the cave. Thirty-two US specialists had arrived at the cave from Hawaii and were considering boring into the cave to hopefully save the missing people.

"Divers are ready for another operation once the water level goes down," a Royal Thai Navy Seal posted in a Facebook message.

The boys, aged 11-16, are members of a local football team nicknamed the "Wild Boars". They and their 26-year-old coach entered the cave in Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai after football practice on Saturday. The mother of one of the players raised the alarm when her son did not return home. Bicycles, shoes and backpacks belonging to the footballers were found near the cave entrance.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will visit the rescue site in a show of moral support for the 13 people trapped in the flooded cave, their families and rescuers.

new entrance.jpg (80.54 KiB) Viewed 559 times

[Nereus]

PM at flooded cave site as search for footballers continues

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... recent_box

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha arrived at Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district on Friday morning as the search for the team of 12 young footballers and their coach trapped inside the labyrinth entered its sixth day.

He was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Gen Chatchai Sarikulya and Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda.
Water levels were reported to have slightly receded on Friday after being swollen by heavy rain on Thursday, forcing rescuers to retreat from the cave.

Efforts continued to pump out enough water for divers to resume the search.

Theeraphong Burirak, director of the Chiang Mai-based Provincial Electricity Authority Region 1 (North), said 13,700 metres of waterproof electrical wire had been delivered to the site to extend the 4,000 metres of wiring already in place and enable the supply electricity deeper inside the cave.

US rescuers were deploying ultrasonic sensors to be used in underwater navigation in the turbid water. Thermal sensors, or infrared body heat detectors, to help locate the victims and diver propulsion vehicles were also being employed.
Another unit of Royal Thai Navy Seals was expected to arrive on Friday afternoon with more rescue equipment. They will help pump water out of the cave and comb through surrounding areas looking for more shafts leading down into the cave.

In Bangkok, Army Cyber Centre chief Gen Rittee Intravudh delivered his thanks to US military attache Col Larry J Redmon, of the US embassy, following the arrival of specialist disaster and rescue team from Hawaii, at a dinner to mark both the 200th anniversary of the first contacts between Thailand and US and US Independence Day.

The young students, aged 11-16, were led into the cave system by their 26-year-old coach after practice on Saturday and have not been seen since. It is believed they were trapped inside by rising flood water caused by heavy, continuing, rain. The bicycles, shoes and backpacks were found near the cave entrance.
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And for those technically challenged, although every bit will help, a pump of this size would probably take 30 minutes just to empty an average sized swimming pool:

pump.jpg (62.49 KiB) Viewed 517 times

[PeteC]

Can't hurt. Maybe a few will get through to them.........

"Rescue police will on Friday drop dozens of survival boxes containing food, maps and mobile phones into chimneys near the Tham Luang cave, hoping they will reach the 13 persons trapped there a week ago.

The boxes also contain messages which ask that the finder to phone the rescue team and tell them their location and the extent of their water and medical supplies. The boxes will be dropped into waterways and open channels at Doi Pa Mee cliff near the cave with the hope that they will float to within reach of the missing group. The boxes also contained blinker, pens for marking, mobile phones of three providers, flashlights, candles and lighter.".........

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... l/30348914

[Nereus]

A lot of truth in this report.

With help arriving from across Thailand and other countries, this challenging mission needs something that has been missing right from the start -- a highly organised and well-coordinated command centre with someone in charge who has the necessary experience and abilities in emergency and disaster response.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... ave-rescue
Clock ticks on cave rescue

As the search-and-rescue efforts within Chiang Rai's Tham Luang Cave enter their sixth day Friday, the task of finding the 12 boys and their football coach continues to be hampered by the extreme conditions of the cave environment -- rising water levels and flooding in deeper areas.

With help arriving from across Thailand and other countries, this challenging mission needs something that has been missing right from the start -- a highly organised and well-coordinated command centre with someone in charge who has the necessary experience and abilities in emergency and disaster response.

It is obvious that Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn, who has been at the helm for the past five days, is not that person. The operation under his leadership has been sloppy and disorganised without a proper "war room". As time runs out to save the lives of the boys, aged 11-16, and the 26-year-old coach, the operation, which has expanded and become relatively large in recent days, needs to be run better.

It should start with the governor taking a back seat and providing a supporting role such as dealing with local logistics.
A new central commander should be assigned to ensure timely coordination and communications among the different search and rescue teams.

Since the football team went missing on Saturday, many state agencies including Navy Seals, the army, local administrative organisations, the police, geologists and the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation have become involved.

On Sunday, local rescuers went inside the cave only to be forced to turn back by rising water, a development believed to have forced the football team to venture further into the cave and become trapped. Even though the Seals, who led the search, later successfully managed to traverse several flooded areas, they were eventually pushed back by the water.

It appears too many people have repeated the same tasks and collectively sucked the oxygen out of the cave.
The underground rescue operation should have been planned and directed by cave experts who have specialised skills and knowledge. Cavers from the UK's Cave Rescue Organisation are now at the site to help along with divers and rescue teams from Laos and the US Indo-Pacific Command. But the operation has not made the best use of their expertise, let alone give them the necessary briefings and information upon their arrival.

Geologists and officials from the national park should lead the drilling teams as there are efforts under way to bore shafts down into the cave. A communications team should be set up to ensure all parties including medical teams and the media are updated in a timely manner on the progress and challenges faced.
All of these and other tasks need to be supervised by a capable central commander.

Too many people have become involved at the rescue site, and those who have no relevant skills in such operations or who have no direct responsibility should not be there at all. They provide no added value to the operation and only unhelpful publicity.

For example, deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul visited the area only to point the finger of blame at local officers for not having asked the parents of the boys to report them as missing. Similarly, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will also show up Friday without any vital task. Local officials were preoccupied Thursday in tidying up the site and the road for his entourage.

Thailand should have been better prepared to handle this rescue operation given that the country has suffered several emergencies and natural disasters including the 2004 tsunami and the 2011 mega-flooding in the capital. It should have been a given that the first rule of crisis management is a strong central command which would lead to optimal results while avoiding confusion and duplication of tasks.

There is still time to organise the rescue operation better to save the boys and their coach -- but the clock is ticking.

[HHTel]

The boxes also contain messages which ask that the finder to phone the rescue team and tell them their location and the extent of their water and medical supplies.

I think that if there was a signal down there, they'd have phoned long ago!

[HHTel]

including the 2004 tsunami

And that caused the decision to build a tsunami warning tower in HH where there is zero chance of a tsunami. Their knowledge is severely lacking and thank god they have some help from outside of Thailand for this operation. Fingers crossed that there is a successful outcome.

[PeteC]

If you look at the group photo of the team and coach on one of the links above you'll see that most of those boys are basically bones and little meat as it is. Yes, they have youth on their side and I hope they had pockets filled with snack bars when they went in there. If not, they must be getting close to exhaustion with little ability to move anywhere even if they hear rescue activity. They all need some luck and a breakthrough very soon. Pete

[PeteC]

Well, no luck at all at the moment.

CHIANG RAI – Chaos erupts at the entrance to a cave where 12 young footballers and their coach are missing after an accident reportedly took place, injuring an unknown number of rescue workers.

Ambulance sirens are heard in the area. Preliminary media reports from the scene said several rescue workers have been wounded by an electrical leakage.

This is a developing story and may be updated without notice.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crim ... l-leakage/

[Nereus]

Ambulance sirens are heard in the area. Preliminary media reports from the scene said several rescue workers have been wounded by an electrical leakage.

Well, all I can say to that is: why has it taken so long? You cannot twist a couple of wires together around water and not expect it to bite you!

[PeteC]

Your above article Nereus, Clock ticks on cave rescue, is the biggest problem, and I'm afraid it may be too late for them realizing it. We shouldn't be surprised here though as we see it all the time. Pete

[Khundon1975]

Ambulance sirens are heard in the area. Preliminary media reports from the scene said several rescue workers have been wounded by an electrical leakage.

Well, all I can say to that is: why has it taken so long? You cannot twist a couple of wires together around water and not expect it to bite you!

As you say Nereus, surprise it’s not happened before. The total lack of any Health & Safety, is just another symptom of how Thais seem to work!
Heaven forbid, if members of the rescue teams lose their lives, due to the incompetence of the “electricians” installing lighting within the caves.

Why has the Prime Minister not appointed an overall Commander, with the different rescue services reporting to him. It would seem that no one wants to grasp that nettle, for fear of being a scapegoat if it all goes wrong.

Drilling holes in the hope of finding the place where these kids are, relies purely on luck, but if they do strike lucky, at least they could pass provisions down to them and buy time, which is what they desperately need now.

I’ve no idea just how much water is fed into the caves by the river and seepage from surface water, but looking at that electric submersible pump in the picture, I hope they have access to a hell of a lot of them. Having seen that type of pump in action, I’m not sure they would make much difference to water levels, considering the system is being fed from flooding of the rivers feeding the cave system.
Let’s hope the rains subside, but it would take days for any rain that has fallen, before river levels fall.

[Nereus]

Starting to look like desperation now. Not sure what they hope to achieve with the drilling? If they were sure of where the boys are it might be worth a shot, but by all reports they seem to think that the small size holes will drain the water.
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New chimney in cave gives rescuers hope

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... ffers-hope

CHIANG RAI: Rescuers have discovered a hole that could be an alternative entrance in their quest to find 12 teenagers and their football coach trapped in Tham Luang cave.

Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said the chimney, discovered during a survey on the mountain, is located on the Mee cliff in the northern section of the cave.

Police paratroops from the Naresuan camp lowered ropes 40 metres inside and they landed on muddy soil, he added. It is not clear yet whether the area is part of another chamber of Tham Luang.

The chimney is on the opposite side of a location called Pattaya Beach that is believed to be where the boys and their coach might have reached.

The 13 entered the cave on Saturday afternoon and have been the subject of a massive search and rescue effort hampered by flooding and persistent downpours in Mae Sai, near the border with Myanmar in this northern province.
Thai and foreign rescuers have been trying to find other entrances to the cave as the main access route has blocked by floodwater despite efforts to pump it out.

A video clip posted online by the Navy Seal tem showed the rapid flow of water through a passage that divers had been able to navigate erlier, but it was blocked by water again on Friday morning.

PM tries to lift spirits
Why cave rescue is so difficult

Other teams were drilling into the soil close to the cave in another attempt to drain water from Tham Luang. They sank their first hole 30 metres but did not find any wells, said Ekchawin Longpinit of the Underground Water Department.

"We will continue to drill, and more drilling equipment is being sent" to explore other spots, he sid earlier Friday.
A team of Seals and three British divers attempted to dive to a chamber on the way to Pattaya Beach but returned because of the strong current, according to a Royal Thai Navy report.

Boxes containing food and first-aid supplies are being randomly dropped into the cave as rescuers hope they could reach the 12 boys and their coach. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)

Police dropped plastic boxes containing food and first-aid packages inside shafts in the hope that they might reach the boys and their coach. Each box includes food, a light, a map with a pen for them to mark their location, a botte of water and even a mobile phone in case connections to contact rescuers can be made.

Police hope that if the pckges reach the group, they could mark their location on the map, place it in a box and float it back to reach the hands of the search teams.

Related search: tham luang cave, rescue, Chiang Rai

[Nereus]

A good editorial with a lot of truth in it:
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Hope lives on as cave rescue crisis unfolds

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... is-unfolds

Time is not on their side, and not on ours. To beat nature and to outrun time -- and what cruel nature and pitiless time -- we give it everything we have.

The rescue saga at Tham Luang Cave in Chiang Rai has attained the status of national operation, as it should, and for once the whole country has become one in hope and prayer, in thought and willpower. To save the lives of 12 boys and their football coach trapped for seven days in that nightmarish cave has become, in a way, a mission to save our soul -- a collective light at the end of the tunnel, a proof that hope is alive in the land where hopelessness often reigns.

To risk a cliché, what has happened at the cave over the past week sums up the broad spectrum of 21st century Thailand -- the scientific Thailand, the supernatural Thailand, the dogged, indefatigable, never-say-never Thailand, and the unready, politicised, emotional Thailand.

The Thailand where academics rally to provide coordinated information of the cave system while Buddhists pray to sacred beings, Muslims organise special prayers, and spiritual mediums held seances to unblock the dark forces that might be holding the victims captive in the depth of the cavern. The Thailand where incense is burned next to a water pump, and offerings are made for the local Goddess Nang Non as the Seals team braves the muddy water. Nature is all-powerful, and the supernatural is an all-too-human need of convincing ourselves that we still have a say.

Then, reporters of varying stripes descended upon the cave entrance, performing their duty and feeding us hourly updates. In some cases, they also got in the way of the rescuers. Worse, the public's anxious anticipation for good news has fed into a sewer of exploitative, attention-seeking fake news agencies and wild rumours, and every day we keep seeing groundless reports that the boys have been found and saved -- only to be dismissed minutes later. Then the next day, the cycle repeats. Be careful that our hunger for news is turning delusional, and our desire for emotional satisfaction often overrides fact. It's not the first time this has happened, and it certainly won't be the last.

Then came the VIPs.

To start with, no one should ever doubt the sacrifice of the officers and staff working round the clock, but with all the bigwigs at the already crowded cave we're seeing the Thailand where every social phenomenon risks being turned into a spectacle, a festival, a stunt, and where politics, power play and public opinion is exploited. Our top police chiefs are there on the scene -- some of them have real work to do, others simply don't. Freshly becoming a meme-of-the-week character is deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, who epitomised the finger-pointing boss when he was captured in a video reprimanding rescue staff for digging in the cave without a licence -- are you serious, sir, a licence?

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha himself visited the operation yesterday, and his spokesperson assured us that this wasn't a red-carpet distraction for those who're racing against time. At the cave interview, the PM said something about an election. Are you -- swear it on Goddess Nang Non -- absolutely serious, sir?

In all fairness, I won't question these VIPs' motives. They're worried and anxious, just like us, and they have the right to be. But as public figures with political status and huge entourages, it wouldn't hurt if they, too, weighed the benefit of their presence in a situation that's becoming more dire with every hour.

entourages, it wouldn't hurt if they, too, weighed the benefit of their presence in a situation that's becoming more dire with every hour.
The arrival of these VIPs also points to something more fundamental: the lack of a national emergency management agency, not just for this cave incident, but for similar disasters that might happen. That our geography exempts us from the curses of fault lines and volcanic wrath doesn't mean we don't have to prepare for flash floods, mudslides, tsunamis or stranded tourists. Cobbling together help from charity and volunteerism is admirable but not sustainable. We rely on the superheroes and the supernatural, and yet we should realise that, unfortunate as these 13 victims are, such misfortune is natural, and the best way to deal with it is to be ready at all time.

We continue to send thoughts and prayers. Their hope is our hope. And hope, despite the odds, will prevail.

Kong Rithdee is Life Editor, Bangkok Post.

[Blacky]

Wow, great editorial and spot on! Thanks for sharing....

Cheers,
B.