Cheers, Chants greet Rescued Miners in Chile
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 13, 2010 -- Updated 0753 GMT (1553 HKT)
Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- Their return heralded by a siren's blare and the relieved cries of a happy nation, the first of 33 miners began emerging into a cool desert night early Wednesday after being trapped underground for 69 harrowing days.
Florencio Avalos was the first to make the bumpy 16-minute ride to the surface as eager family members and anxious strangers watched from around the world the developments at the San Jose mine. He emerged wearing green coveralls, blinking in the bright lights and to the cheers and applause of the rescue team.
Avalos beamed as he walked on the earth's surface for the first time in more than two months. He hugged his family and then Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.
"We had promised to look until we found them," Pinera said. "We can all feel proud to be Chilean."
rescuers and relatives at the surface. His brother, Renan Silva, is also trapped in the mine.
"I'm overwhelmed with emotion because it's been so long since we have seen him," Alfonso Avalos, Florencio's father, told Chile's TVN. "I'm very proud of him. Thanks to God he got out and looks good." H
As the second miner, Mario Sepulveda, exited the rescue hole, he reached into a large yellow bag and handed out what appeared to be rocks to officials and rescue workers.
Sepulveda cracked jokes and led the crowd in a cheer for Chile. As the 40-year-old was hauled away on a stretcher for medical evaluation, he asked his wife, "How's the dog?"
Each round trip took about 50 minutes.
Jeff Hart, one of the lead drillers who assisted with the rescue efforts, said he was thrilled to watch the first miner surface.
"It's extremely exciting for us. ... It's a very emotional moment for us," Hart said. "We worked real long and hard on that, and to actually see the capsule come through the first time through the hole that we drilled was just unbelievable."
A joyous celebration burst out in the capital, Santiago, as hundreds watched on a big screen TV set up in a square.
From Washington came well wishes from the White House.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the brave miners, their families, and the men and women who have been working so hard to rescue them," said U.S. President Barack Obama. "While that rescue is far from over and difficult work remains, we pray that by God's grace, the miners will be able to emerge safely and return to their families soon."
In the hours before the highly anticipated rescue, the sounds of drilling, beeping, rumbling and hammering filled the air at the mine site.
Chile is a country that reacts well to adversity, Pinera said earlier, though he added that the miners will not be the same once they come out of the mine, and Chile, too, is changed.
As the rescue operation continues, the trapped miners will all put on green coveralls made of moisture-resisting material and personalized with names like Raul Bustos. Juan Illanes. Alex Vega.
The oldest is 63. The youngest, only 18.
The miners will also have on fresh underwear and socks when they climb into a claustrophobic capsule only a little wider than the span of their shoulders.
They will be instructed on the communications equipment and the oxygen supply inside the rescue tube. And they will put on special goggles to protect their eyes -- which have become accustomed to the vampiric darkness of the caved-in mine -- from the lights up above.
Then the order to hoist will ring out and each man will begin a slow, bumpy, upward journey through half a mile of rock.
The miners have been placed on liquid diets in case they vomit on the way to the surface and they have been exercising for an hour a day.
Yonni Barrios, is a paramedic and has been weighing his fellow miners daily, taking blood tests and doing daily urine analyses. The others call him "Dr. House" after the television show, which is popular in Chile.
The rescue is likely to go from night into day. Some of the men will feel the intense chill of a desert night; others may come out to a searing sun burning high in a cloudless sky.
The rescue capsule will spin as it rises. It will be harrowing. And dark. Like a scary amusement park ride.
"As he comes out he will be reborn," said Nelly Bugueno about her son Victor Zamora, 33, a carrier pigeon handler and a poet.
Nelly Bugueno has been camping out with the other families above the caved-in mine in this spartan area void of hotels, gas stations or any other amenities. They named the place Camp Esperanza (Hope).
Tuesday, that hope was apparent as the families sang songs and could not contain the joy of long-awaited reunions. Thirty-three flags hung from a red school house -- 32 Chilean and a single Bolivian -- representing the nationalities of the men buried underneath.
Bolivian President Evo Morales is expected at the mine site Wednesday to show his support.
"God is in all places, At the same time your family loves you," read a sign for Mario Gomez, the oldest of the miners.
Gomez began mining at the tender age of 12. He became a spiritual leader for the trapped men and requested a crucifix and statuettes of saints so the men could construct a shrine inside the mine.
The first to come out will be five miners who have been deemed fit and who possess the most technical know-how so that they can advise the rescue teams.
The next five will be the physically weakest, a term perhaps not appropriate for anyone who has survived more than two months in the bowels of the earth. But one of the miners has diabetes; another has black lung.
The last to come out will be Luis Alberto Iribarren, 54. Like the captain of a sinking ship, the shift supervisor volunteered to stay behind until all his men were safe.
As the men are extracted, they will undergo about two hours of health checks at a field hospital set up at the mine. They will then be flown by helicopter to a hospital in the town of Copiapo -- approximately a 15-minute flight.
Miners who are healthy enough will be allowed to visit briefly with family members in a reunion area before being taken to the hospital. Some have exhibited anxiety, according to Manalich, the health minister. They may experience psychological problems.
For the 33 men, the only contact with the outside world since the beginning of August was through a small bore hole through which they were sent food, water and other supplies. A letter sent by one of them said they would take a vow of silence, to never to fully reveal the details of their underground misery.
Edison Pena, 34, sent back a request for Elvis Presley music and led the group in sing-alongs.
Victor Segovia, 48, kept a journal throughout the ordeal and sent his updates to help keep the rescuers on the surface informed about the miners' well-being. He's an acoustics expert.
Jimmy Sanchez, 18, the youngest miner who worked as an environmental assistant, sent a letter to his mother. He just wanted to taste her cooking again.
Ariel Ticona, 29, watched his wife give birth to a baby girl via a video link that was lowered into the mine. Of his three children, this was the first birth he was able to witness. They called their new daughter Esperanza.
High above the miners, the buzz of electrical generators brought in by hordes of media began to drown out other sounds Tuesday. About 1,500 journalists from 39 nations gathered to tell a story of survival and family members held their breath.
And as the miners began to surface Wednesday -- safe and sound -- a nation exhaled.
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