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Thai cave rescue: What the search teams face
MAE SAI, Thailand, July 2, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A massive international
operation to search for 12 boys and their football coach in a flooded Thai
cave has made agonising progress as rescuers battle muddy torrents in almost
total darkness, in a race-against-time to find the lost children.
Bad weather has hampered the rescue effort for the youngsters, aged between
11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach through the snaking Tham Luang cave —
one of Thailand’s longest, and toughest to explore.
Rains finally eased over the weekend and water pumps working around the
clock have helped to stem the floods.
But several tunnels leading to where the boys are believed to be were still
submerged in murky waters on Monday afternoon as the search entered its ninth
day.
Here’s what we know about how the boys got stuck, what rescuers are up
against and how the team could be removed from the flooded cave if they are
found alive.
How did they get trapped so quickly?
It is not known why the team ventured into the cave, but they had been
there before — some of the boys knew it well.
They are believed to have walked several kilometres into the winding
network of passageways to an elevated, airy sandbank called ‘Pattaya Beach’.
That means they would have had to pass through at least one narrow slit in
the rock now submerged in muddy water.
Then the heavy rains started and water likely rushed in through the cave’s
main entrance while simultaneously seeping through porous limestone walls.
“It’s like filling your bathtub with 15 different hoses at the same time,
and then you have a single drain… and the drain can only do so much,” Josh
Morris, founder of Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures, who is helping the
rescue effort, told AFP.
What’s it like inside the cave?
The cave is one of Thailand’s longest — it stretches 10 kilometres (six
miles) underground — and also one of the most notoriously difficult to
navigate.
A sign outside the cave warns visitors not to enter in the rainy months
from July to November.
Its up-and-down tunnels provide plenty of low points for floodwaters to
pool, and its claustrophobic passageways are almost impossible to find once
submerged. What are rescuers up against?
Morris compared the tunnels to an “obstacle course”, while Thai television
has shown archive footage of jagged crannies that lead to ‘Pattaya Beach’ —
hard going in water and with bulky oxygen tanks for the divers.
There are few openings to the cave and few light sources, so without head
torches conditions inside would be pitch black.
Thai Navy SEAL divers have reached several kilometers inside the cave —
but it’s taken them days and they’ve been forced back at several points by
onrushing waters.
They risk being pinned to rocks by fast-moving torrents and every move
forward needs to be calculated carefully.
They are also battling poor visibility: the murky waters have been compared
to swimming in a cold cafe latte.
A base camp was set up three kilometres inside the cave over the weekend —
stocked with food, medicine, water and hundreds of oxygen tanks — allowing
the divers to stay in the depths for longer stretches.
How long will it take to get the boys out?
If the boys are found alive, the precarious task of getting them out will
become an urgent — and complicated — task.
There are several options, though none of them easy.
They may have to dive through flooded tunnels, retracing divers’ routes to
reach them.
Or they could be lifted out through chimneys the rescuers are currently
drilling — if those chimneys connect to the area where the boys are found.
Waiting for flooding to subside is another option that could allow the boys
to get out on foot.
All of the choices are seriously complicated by the physical condition of
the team and their immediate medical needs after days underground with little
food.
“Cave rescue is laborious, it takes forever, even when you find people
that’s the first step then kind of the ‘real’ rescue starts after that,”
Morris said.
“My assumption is that if they do find the boys it will probably take a few
weeks after that.”
BSS/AFP/ARS/1649 hrs