Reinforced Rescue Tunnel For Chilean Miners

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Sunday, rescue workers reinforced
an escape tunnel that will be used
to free 33 trapped miners in Chile.
The first miner is to be lifted early
Wednesday morning, more than two months
after an accident that left them sealed
off from the world above.

Sixteen steel tubes are being implanted
atop of the nearly 700 yard shaft in a
move to prevent the rock walls from
crumbling in to stop an escape.

The Chilean government analyzed the shaft,
Sunday, via video cameras. Geologists
concluded most of the tunnel is solid
rock, and small chance of a cave in.

Officials are concerned about the capsule
getting struck in lower sections of the shaft.

"We are going to double check everything
that is necessary until we are convinced
that the system functions," explained
Laurence Golborne, Chile's mining minister.

Rescue recommended to the men that they
decide what order they will exit up the
rescue shaft.

The Chilean health minister, Jaime Manalich,
told reporters that several men wished to be
last to leave the mine in what he called "a
completely admirable show of solidarity."

"We imported fabric, measured them and stitched
their names on the suits," Alejandro Pino, from
the Asociacion Chilena de Seguridad, the work-place
insurance company that is legally responsible for
assisting the mine workers. "It is a fabric that
pulls perspiration away from the body, so they
won't feel the humidity."

When the men are freed, they will be accompanied
through the hall-way where doctors, nurses and
psychologists await. A 48-hour diagnosis begins.