The Wild Boars football team v. the Tham Luang cave
Why don't we have a thread on this? Why aren't we talking about this? I'm sure you all know about it. (Unless it's foreign news and thus doesn't get into the US.) Not the World Cup, and not in Luxembourg.
The kids trapped in the Tham Luang cave are members of a football club called the Wild Boars. They went to the cave as an outing with their coach to celebrate one of the boys' 16th birthday. It looks like they went in, left bikes and belongings near the entrance and then went exploring - but were cut off by a sudden rainfall flooding parts of the passage.
Then they were trapped inside for 9 days before divers* discovered their location (the search started within hours of them going in) on 2 July. They'd been in the dark obviously, and didn't really know how long they'd been there.
Now the problem is to get out they'll have to learn to dive - which means learning to swim first - or stay in there for around four months until after the monsoon season. The professional divers take 6 hours to get from the entrance to where the boys are and 5 hours, with the flow, to get back. And although it's not flooded all the way that's a serious challenge for people who can't dive yet. Some sections are so narrow the divers have to take off their oxygen tanks and pull them through behind or ahead of them.
* British divers
Over 1,000 people have been involved in the rescue attempts already.
They are trying things like pumping out the water - but the rate they're managing isn't going to get them very far and more rains could fall any day. (It's a race against time. You wouldn't believe it if it was a movie.)
They're having to bring in oxygen tanks and pipes, because with the limited space and with so many rescuers working there the available oxygen is running low.
One diver has already died, while doing exactly this.
They're looking at the possibility of chimneys or other access routes from the side of the mountain.
And now Elon Musk has offered his Boring Company kit and specialists to dig a way in (and various other things).
Re: The Wild Boars football team v. the Tham Luang cave
I hope everyone takes a moment today to remember Saman Gunan, the Thai Navy Seal that died making sure the kids stuck in the cave had enough oxygen so that today's rescue would even be possible. #ThaiCaveRescuepic.twitter.com/LkhGmBXOAl
Re: The Wild Boars football team v. the Tham Luang cave
A 5th boy has been brought out.
So far it looks like the rains are not raising the water levels in the caves. But they're also held back by needing to rest the rescue divers and replenish stocks of tanks and things.
No mention of whether the remaining boys are fit enough and have learnt enough dive skills to be brought out ... but that must be a worry.
The eight [already rescued] boys have not been seen in public, but have been pronounced to be in reasonable health.
Quote:
The first group of four boys, who were rescued on Sunday, are being kept in quarantine in hospital and have yet to be reunited with their parents.
Quarantine sounds ominous ...
Quote:
The Thai authorities say the rescued boys are able to eat rice porridge, although their request for a favourite pork dish has been turned down until their digestive systems recover from 10 days without food.
That sounds reasonable.
Quote:
"It could be a bonus that the boys are young. When you're young, you feel invincible and they'd see it as a bit of an adventure," he said.
Not wrong.
I'm almost optimistic. The last 5 have to make it!
Re: The Wild Boars football team v. the Tham Luang cave
All Parents agreed on not find out which boys were rescued until ALL of them are out. Thai Navy Seal gave up his life. Farmers gave up their lands. Volunteers in all shape & form and no one asking for any compensations. As a Thai, THANK YOU WORLD!! #ThaiCaveRescue#humanity
The way she makes it sound here, it’s a miracle that eight boys are already out and none died.
__________________
Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Re: The Wild Boars football team v. the Tham Luang cave
And yet, 9th and 10th boys now out.
At this point my worries are shifting to the high probability they won't be well enough by the weekend to accept the offer to go to the World Cup final.
Re: The Wild Boars football team v. the Tham Luang cave
Misc:
Mae Bua Chaicheun is a rice farmer. Her rice paddies were destroyed by the 130million liters of water pumped from the cave in the rescue mission. Her response:”Children are more important than rice. We can regrow rice but we can’t regrow the children.”#caverescue#ThaiCaveRescuepic.twitter.com/wR7OauqyIf
Hours after the last Wild Boar was freed the main pump in the cave failed, and water levels started inching upwards, the divers said.
One said he heard screaming from deeper inside the cave. “All these headlights start coming over the hill and the water was coming,” he said. “It was noticeably rising.”
The remaining 100 workers inside the cave were frantically rushing to the exit and were safely out less than an hour later.