BUCKHANNON, W. Va. (ABP) — Praises turned to curses for families gathered Jan. 4 inside a West Virginia Baptist church building waiting for news of their loved ones trapped after a coal-mine accident.
Relatives of the 13 trapped miners had waited in the facilities of Sago Baptist Church near Buckhannon, W.Va., for almost two days since the mine explosion, which trapped the miners on the morning of Jan. 2. In the late-night hours of Jan. 3, those gathered in the church received word that rescuers had discovered 12 of the 13 alive.
But their rejoicing gave way to mourning about three hours later, when an executive for the company that owns the mine told them the initial report of survivors had been reported upside down — and that 12 of the 13 were dead.
“I want you to know that the Lord says that there's a time to be born and a time to die, and I guess this week was their time to die,” said John Casto, a member of the American Baptist congregation, in an interview broadcast on CNN.
Casto was among many church members and others from the Sago community, near the town of Buckhannon in north-central West Virginia, who were gathered at the church. The congregation's facilities are located near the entrance to the Sago Mine.
The church's pastor, Wease Day, was sleeping for the first time since the crisis and unavailable for comment the afternoon of Jan. 4, according to a woman who answered the telephone at his home. She said he had not been granting any interviews to journalists.
But Casto told CNN that the scene inside the church was heartbreaking. “They were cussin' and hollerin', and then our pastor, Wease Day, said, 'Look toward God in this tragedy,'” Casto said.
“And then one guy — and I don't believe in cussin' — but one guy said, 'What in the hell has God done for us?'”
During a televised afternoon press conference Jan. 4, the head of the mine's parent company said he regretted the bad information, but that it was due to poor communications conditions in the mine and at the rescuers' command center.
“We obviously regret the manner in which the events unfolded earlier this morning,” Ben Hatfield, chief executive of the International Coal Group, told reporters. He said those at a surface-level command center believed they had heard word by radio from rescuers who had descended deep into the mine that they had discovered 12 miners alive.
That word got back to the church — apparently through official channels and informally through workers' cell phones. The families rejoiced, the church's bell rang out, and those gathered burst into hymns of joy. Mine officials reportedly said the rescued workers would be brought out to see their families. So they waited.
But, according to Hatfield, mine officials soon heard the conflicting report — that only one miner was alive and being rushed to the hospital with a collapsed lung, and that the other 12 had died.
Nonetheless, he said, officials chose not to spread the sad news until it was confirmed.
“We believed it was important to make factual statements to the families,” he said.
Nonetheless, several witnesses interviewed on television news reports said the three-hours-late revelation of the truth angered many of the families.
Hatfield said several miscues “added to the tragedy.”
“In the process of being cautious, we allowed the jubilation to go on longer than it should have,” he told reporters.
Sago Baptist is not the only Baptist congregation affected by the tragedy. According to the American Baptist News Service, one of the miners killed was a leader in another local ABC-affiliated congregation. Junior Toler was a deacon at Stump Chapel Baptist Church in Sutton, W. Va.
The news service encouraged American Baptists to pray for both congregations and Toler's family, and said both the ABC and the West Virginia Baptist Convention had offered assistance to the Sago church.
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