After 11 days, still trapped
Youths in cave learn to dive in push to get out before rains hit.
MAE SAI, Thailand — Relief has given way to anxiety around the site of a vast cave complex where a soccer team of 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach remain trapped after 11 days, as rescuers deliberate the best way to extract them before severe storms hit.
The boys were being given rudimentary diving lessons Wednesday, even though none of them knows how to swim. Though water levels have receded, volunteer divers who have spent hours deep in the cave complex say currents remain strong, and even they have to hold on to ropes to haul themselves out.
“The water is still too rough for the boys now,” said Tiraya Jaikaew, who leads a team of volunteer rescue divers helping the Thai navy. “We are focusing on setting up ropes in each section of the cave to help them.”
The 11-day drama has riveted the country and much of the outside world after the young soccer players, ranging in age from 11 to 16, disappeared while exploring the vast Tham Luang cave complex and then were trapped by rising floodwaters.
Divers finally found them huddled on a patch of dry ledge in one chamber, but getting them out remains a problem. The 2.5-mile journey through winding, flooded passages would normally be navigable by only the most experienced divers.
Thai authorities are also hoping to remove enough water, so perhaps the boys could escape by foot, with their heads right above the water level. After pumping out about 30 million gallons, they’ve reduced water levels by 30 percent to 40 percent, they said Wednesday. Unseasonably dry weather has helped, but it is not predicted to last.
If the boys can be trained up and the water sufficiently reduced, an extraction could happen within days, they added.
At the rescue site Wednesday afternoon, Thai soldiers conducted their first evacuation drill — locking arms as they formed a column from the cave’s entrance to a field, where 13 ambulances were waiting to take the group to the hospital.
The drill simulated what a rescue would look like and how the boys would be transported to a hospital when they are eventually freed from the cave. It also raised hope among family members, some of whom have stayed at the chaotic, muddy site where rescue operations are being coordinated since the boys disappeared. An aunt of one of the boys, who declined to be named because of strict controls around their interactions with the media, said authorities had told her a rescue could be staged as soon as today.
More rains are predicted for the weekend, and Thailand’s monsoon season will stretch until September. If a rescue attempt is not made soon, it may be months before the boys and their coach see daylight.
Videos released Wednesday by the Thai navy, which is overseeing the effort, show the boys in apparently good spirits, introducing themselves to the camera, with their palms pressed together in the traditional greeting.
Another video shows a Thai doctor, who spent the night with them in the cave, treating their cuts and bruises and joking with the boys, many of whom appear to have new clothes and were wrapped in foil, heat-retaining blankets.
Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn said Wednesday that the boys have been practicing wearing diving masks and breathing, but he doesn’t believe they have attempted any practice dives.
He said it is unknown when an extraction could be attempted.
“If it’s risky or not safe, we will not proceed yet,” Narongsak said. “It has to be 100 percent safe.”
He also said the boys and their coach may not all be extracted at the same time, depending on their health. He said authorities will evaluate their readiness each day and if there is any risk will not proceed.
“The water is very strong and space is narrow. Extracting the children takes a lot of people,” Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters, according to Reuters.
After days of solitude, the boys are now receiving a string of visitors, including rescue divers and health professionals, and they are being fed liquid, high-protein food.
“I have spent 10 years as a rescuer, but nothing has ever been like this,” said Jaikaew. “I’ve never seen an effort as big as this in my life. It is really special.” Information for this article was contributed by Shibani Mahtani and Jittrapon Kaicome of The Washington Post; and by Tassanee Vejpongsa of The Associated Press.