Weekend storms may pose threat for trapped soccer team

More than two miles inside the cave, where they are being fortified with high-protein gels and foil warming blankets, the boys have been practicing wearing diving masks and breathing under the instructions of the SEALS.

Officials say they would be accompanied by two or three rescuers each, and that not everyone would need to be evacuated at the same time.

But the boys – ages 11 to 16 – are thought to be novice swimmers at best, and frail after having spent nearly two weeks underground since they entered the cave after soccer practice June 23 and were trapped by floodwaters.

The risks of the mission became apparent with the death of the former Thai SEAL, officials said.

The rescuer, identified as 37-year-old Saman Gunan, had been moving oxygen tanks along the path that rescuers have been using to reach the boys, allowing divers to stay underwater longer during the treacherous dive.

At one tight corner known as T-junction, there is almost zero visibility, said Ivan Karadicz, a Danish diving instructor participating in the effort.

“You can only see 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) in front of you,” Karadicz said. And the point is so narrow that only one diver can usually pass at a time, meaning a boy might have to negotiate that point without the aid of a rescuer, he said.

The number of rescuers inside the cave complex, beneath a mountain in rugged, tropical Chiang Rai province, has also lowered oxygen levels for those inside.

High-powered pumps are clearing 50,000 gallons of water out of the cave every hour, helped by relatively dry weather over the past week. But rescuers have still not identified every point where water flows into the six-mile-long cave.

“We still have a lot of water at Chamber Three,” said the director of the provincial natural disaster department, Komsan Suwanampha, referring to a point closer to the mouth of cave where the SEALS have set up a base of operations, and where rescuers hope to bring the boys out by stretcher.