Cave in Laos: CNN correspondent describes emotion of rescue
Starving, weakened and surrounded by damp darkness, five residents of a village in Laos remained trapped for 11 days inside a flooded cave. The CNN team was the only one from the international press to follow the exit of four of the five residents rescued alive from the cave.
Correspondent Will Ripley described the emotion of the moment. Ripley says that she did not expect the success of the operation that resulted in the rescue of these four residents and that the rescue team itself described it as a "miracle" that they managed to get out of the cave alive.
"It gives me goosebumps thinking about it. The rain stopped long enough, the pumps worked well enough, and the men inside the cave were brave enough to try. And they did it. They crawled and climbed to the exit," he reported.
Ripley says everyone, including him, was shocked by the success of the rescue.
The correspondent described the operation as a feat of engineering, technology and willpower, involving people from Laos, Thailand and different parts of the world.
"We traveled a long way, many hours to get here. I feel it was a blessing and a privilege to witness this miracle here in Laos," he concluded.
In an interview with CNN, Mee Singfamalai, a 23-year-old barber who was one of four rescued this weekend, reported that their courage came from their own fear: "I always believed I would survive. I needed to go back to see my sisters and my mother," said Mee.
More than 10 days since the disappearance
The group of seven people had entered the cave in search of gold on May 20, when intense rains flooded the entire surrounding area, blocking the exit with a wall of water. Since then, 13 days have passed since these people disappeared.
Five people have already been rescued, four of them during the last weekend, but two others remain missing inside the cave.
During the early morning hours (Brasília time) of this Monday (1st), rescue teams were investigating knocks heard coming from inside the cave, recorded at least twice.
These sounds could indicate that the two people still missing were alive. However, rescuers warn that it is too early to be certain about the origin of the sounds.
To facilitate access to the site, pumps continued to operate to drain water from the underground galleries. A new access was also discovered: a vertical and very narrow shaft, about 100 meters long, which offered a safer entrance to the point where people could be.
Despite this, new rains in recent days have worsened flooding in the area, making the teams' work even more complex.
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Source: CNN