Tragedy at Sago- Lets pray instead of blame

No one who hasn't been in a cave the last few days, has to have heard about the mine disaster in West Virginia. Tragically it came to an end last night.

TALLMANSVILLE, West Virginia (Reuters) - Only one man survived after an explosion in a West Virginia coal mine, a mine official said on Wednesday, transforming joy into grief and anger just hours after a mistaken report emerged that 12 of 13 missing miners were still alive 40 hours after the blast.

Ben Hatfield, president of mine owner International Coal Group Inc., blamed the earlier report on "miscommunication" and said that the company had then waited until it could determine which of the miners were dead or alive to tell the families their fate.

Anne Meredith, whose father died in the incident, said, "I feel that we were lied to all along," adding that she planned to sue ICG.

Virginia Dean, whose uncle was in the Sago mine in central West Virginia, reacted by saying:

"Only one lived. They lied."

Hatfield said, "The initial report from the rescue team to the command center indicated multiple survivors, but that information proved to be a miscommunication."

He denied the company had confirmed the initial report, and said he did not want to assign blame to the rescue team.

Several newspapers splashed headlines such as "Miracle in the Mine" on their frontpages which went to press before the truth emerged. "Alive! Miners beat odds" was USA Today's headline with a picture of two smiling family members.

Late on Tuesday night rescue workers located the 12, who had been trapped some 13,000 feet inside the mine since 6:30 a.m. (1130 GMT) on Monday when the explosion had spread lethal gases in the mine.

The sole survivor, Randal McCloy, was taken to a nearby hospital where staff physician Dr. Susan Long said he arrived unconscious and in critical condition. He was stabilized with a breathing tube and sent to a bigger hospital, she said.

A doctor at West Virginia Univeristy Hospital later told a news conference McCloy was being treated for dehydration and a collapsed lung and was being kept sedated. "I think youth always helps," the doctor told a news conference, commenting on possible reasons why the 27-year-old McCloy survived while the others perished.

Please pray for Mr. McCloy and the victim's families.

The reporters report makes brief mention of the false early reports that the miners had been found alive. Other media outlets, too many to list but one being the Palm Beach Post/Cox News Services, also were mistaken in their rush to get this news on the air or into print.

The bungling of the MSM in this story is the talk of the blogosphere right now. The list of those blogging on just the tragedy or the bungling or both composes most of my blogroll(Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, Indepundit, Florida Cracker, Ann Althouse, Poliblog, Sister Toldjah, Don Surber, and more. The media blew the call, Rodger Morrow probably has the best call of what happened. Then some bloggers piled on. Remember we're dependent on the MSM for most of what we blog on. No question, the media got a black eye from this story(It may even be prophetic, scroll down my list of predictions here to #30) and deservingly so. It should also serve as a warning to bloggers. Not to rely on unverified news reporting on a breaking story. Oh so easily we forget Katrina and all the false reporting coming out of New Orleans afterwards.

The MSM isn't perfect and so isn't the blogosphere. There was only one perfect one and look what Pontius Pilate had done to him.

Alot of people made mistakes in regards to Sago, I suggest what I said in this post's title. Let's just pray for everyone involved.