Drought of order 3 DAYS TO SAVE THAI CAVE BOYS Rescue bid ‘today’ as monsoon flooding looms
A DESPERATE mission to save the young Thai soccer team trapped in a flooded cave complex could begin today.
Rescuers have only three days left before monsoon rains arrive and drive the 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach on to ten square yards of rock.
Last night, as more heavy rain hit northern Thailand, anguished parents of the Wild Boars soccer team were reading letters of hope relayed by divers from the boys.
Sompong Jaiwong, 13, who is wearing an England shirt, wrote: “I love Dad and Mum. Don’t worry about me I’m safe.”
Pipat “Nick” Bodhi, 15, wrote: “Nick loves Mum and Dad and siblings. If I can get out, Mum, Dad please bring me mookatha (Thai barbecue food) to eat.”
Their coach Ekkapol Chantawong, who led the children into the dangerous caves wrote: “I promise I will take care of the kids as best as I can... I also sincerely apologise to the parents.”
Relatives responded with letters to their children, including a heartfelt note to Ekkapol urging him not to blame himself.
Darkness
THIS reservoir is literally cracking under the strain of having no rain as Britain’s longest heatwave in 42 years continues.
Wayoh Reservoir near Edgworth, Lancs, which supplies Bolton, looks like a desert.
Owner United Utilities warns three million homes could face a hosepipe ban in days if water demand doesn’t fall in the north-west.
Meanwhile at Aston in Birmingham there was plenty of water about yesterday for all the wrong reasons. A main burst, flooding a road and more than 100 homes.
At least 1,000 people are involved in the rescue operation, including British divers, Thai navy divers, soldiers and civilian volunteers. Oxygen levels in the cave chambers yesterday were at 15 per cent – a significant drop from the usual 21 per cent. The youngsters and their coach spent nine days trapped 2.5 miles down the caves in pitch darkness without food or water before they were found last Monday.
The group went missing during a school trip after flash flooding.
The rescue mission’s chief, Narongsak Osottanakorn, governor of the Chiang Rai region in northern Thailand, said the group are now strong enough to walk.
But most of the youngsters cannot swim and the route to safety is fraught with danger.
A “buddy dive” system has been proposed in which an experienced rescuer could guide each boy through submerged tunnels.
But serious doubts have been raised after former Thai navy diver Saman Gunan, 37, died on the route on Thursday when he ran out of oxygen as he returned from delivering air tanks to the team.