He's making fun of that story - and, I think, making fun of you.

Oh, I thought he'd gotten a rumor from Hoosier.

Actually, China isn't just all of a sudden having mining problems-they have always had mining problems. Conditions in the mines there are HORRENDUS, and they have little to no regulation of their mines. They have a very high casualty rate there-the conditions there are just awful.

I was watching CNN with Paula Zahn last night and they showed their investigation into how the miscommunication happened. According to their investigation, there were two teams of rescuers in the mine, the one who found them and one who was halfway between them and the "fresh air" command center. The first team found them and claim they radio'd "Found all bodies, one alive" to the next rescuer team. The message the fresh air center heard was "Found all alive". The team in the middle had relayed the information. The people in the fresh air booth told the command center the info they had. Someone, either in the fresh air booth or command center called someone in the church via cell phone to tell them. Officials were going to wait until they were actually exiting the mine. When a guy from the command center called 911, he told the 911 operator that they needed 10 more ambulances. She asked if the miners had all been found alive and he said "That is my understanding".

Very sad, very unfortunate. Let's hope Randall makes it and is relatively intact when he comes out of the coma.

Transcript of message that caused confusion

RADIO REPORTS ON THE MINERS
A transcript of emergency workers' radio traffic Tuesday night at Sago Mine No. 1.


11:48 p.m.
Voice 1: "7472."
Voice 2: "Go ahead, Matt."

Voice 1: "You might as well just stand still right where you're at, Gary. They did find them, and they're all OK, I guess, so, I think we might be transporting them. I'm not exactly sure, but we're stuck right here."

Voice 1: "10-4, Matt."


11:54 p.m.
Voices: (inaudible)
Voice 1: "And what am I telling them?"

Voice 2: (inaudible) "Twelve, and they're bringing them out."

Voice 1: "And they're all alive."

Voice 2: "Uh, as far as I know (inaudible)."

I just talked to a state trooper that was down there during all this.

The mix up came in the relays between the subsurface resuce team and command and control. Someone over heard the radio in command an control (even though you can only make out like every third word) and got on their cell phone and started making calls.

What I thought was messed up is how all the families blamed the CEO and the Gov. for the mistake. They never confirmed it and as soon as the leaks were out they did everything they could to get accurate info as fast as possible.

Soon as the accurate info came out and they did a press release the people down there would have torn Hatfield apart and the Gov. because they blamed them for the inaccurate info.

About the only think you can count on in times of emergency, war, terrorism, etc. is that communications will break down.

That's especially true when multiple agencies and jurisdictions are involved.

Non standardized equipment has a lot to do with it, but there is also the problem of different agencies working differently and using different "verbal shorthand."

In this case, you had local, state, federal and private agencies probably talking different "languages" on different frequencies and using different technologies (hardline, cell, radio).

In "after action" reports on events such as 9/11, and locally here Columbine, difficulty of communication is almost always a topic.

But little is ever done.

If bad information gets out to the public, it's easier to blame the media.

I think you hit the nail on the head before, Delt Alum, when you compared what happened to the game "Telephone". We all know how one statement becomes ever so slightly embroidered, then more so, etc.