Teens Found Alive In Flooded Cave in Thailand
Over ten days ago, a teenaged soccer team and their coach entered the seven-mile-long Tham Luang cave system in Northern Thailand, before being trapped within the caves by rising floodwaters (the system is regularly flooded during the country's rainy season, which lasts from July until September or October). After extensive searches by dive teams and the Thai military, all thirteen members of the group were found alive on Monday evening, but they could be trapped for as long as months before they are able to get out. One of the teens just celebrated his 14th birthday in the cave.
A video posted on Facebook by the Thai Navy Seal shows the boys huddled on a ledge above water responding to drivers with flashlights. When they ask when they can leave, the divers tell them they have to wait, but that they'll be back tomorrow. (It's been reported the group was found only by chance, and that the divers were thus not prepared to offer immediate assistance.) One of the boys replies: "Oh. See you tomorrow." From The New York Times:
Divers finally had a breakthrough, literally, when they chipped away at rocks and enlarged a passageway that had been too small to pass through while wearing an air tank. Once they had created a large enough opening, they were able to push on to where they suspected the group was, roughly three miles from the cave entrance.
Mr. Volanthen and Rick Stanton, both civilian British divers, happened to be in the lead Monday night, laying the guide ropes that divers can use to pass through the murky or turbulent water. It was when Mr. Volanthen ran out of line and surfaced that he saw the group of scrawny boys, some sitting, some standing, on a shelf above the water line.
He was relieved to find all of them alive. The boys were excited about the prospect of food. “Eat, eat, eat,” one of the boys called out.
The group may have to learn to dive or face waiting for flooding to recede, the BBC reports - however, experts have warned that taking inexperienced divers through the corridors of muddy, zero-visibility waters would be very dangerous.
The young boys and their coach were discovered by divers late on Monday on a small dry ledge, and rescuers are continuing to battle rising water to bring more supplies to the group.
Thai military sources have suggested that they may need to have food sent in until water levels are expected to have dropped sufficiently for the group to exit without diving, which could take months (though a pumping system put in place to assist recovery efforts is likely to shorten that timescale). Specially trained doctors are also reportedly being prepped to enter the caves to carry out medical assessments in the next few days to establish their condition and treat possible injuries - following initial health checks, all are said to be in good condition. Meanwhile, Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osotthanakon said that attempts were also being made to install power and telephone lines inside the cave so parents can make contact with their children.
The BBC adds that teams are still searching the mountainside to find other ways in and out of the caves.
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