THE LOST BOYS
Race to save 12 kids trapped in underwater cave
Twelve kids, ages 11 to 16, and their soccer coach were found alive in Thailand after ten days in a cave, cut off from the surface by flooded tunnels.
The 12 young soccer players and their coach who got trapped in a flooded network of caves 10 days ago in northern Thailand were miraculously found alive Monday — all still in their sports jerseys.
But the drama is far from over, as rescuers now face two very treacherous choices in getting the boys out of the labyrinthine Tham Luang cave network.
Authorities were mulling Monday night whether they should wait for water levels to subside while the boys and coach wait in their muddy spot more than 131 feet underground — or teach them to swim out.
Waiting for the water to recede could take weeks, and heavy rains were expected to move in this week, further threatening the trapped group’s safety.
The other option is teaching the boys — who range in age from 11 to 16 and are weakened by hunger — to strap on scuba gear and navigate their way out of the dark, narrow tunnels in murky water. It’s a feat even an experienced diver would find difficult.
Ben Reymenants, a Dutch rescuer who assisted the search, called the boys’ survival a “miracle” but predicted it could be weeks or even months before the water recedes enough for the rescue to be completed.
“At the end of the day, they are [more than a mile] inside a very complex cave system,” he told the BBC’s “Newsnight.”
“The issue is that time is not really on our side because they’re expecting heavy rains within three days, and the cave system [could] just flood, making access impossible for the kids.”
Chiang Rai province’s governor, Narongsak Osatanakorn, summed it up: “We found them safe — but the operation isn’t over.”
Thousands of gallons of water were being pumped out of the cave every hour. And rescue workers were bringing in supplies and oxygen by rope and keeping close contact with the team, named the Wild Boars.
“We will take care of them until they can move,” Narongsak said, according to Agence FrancePresse. “We will bring food to them and a doctor who can dive. I am not sure they can eat, as they have not eaten for a while.”
Specialized divers from all over the world were called in last week to search for the boys. The group disappeared during a team outing with their coach June 23.
They got trapped in the 6-mile network of caves following heavy flooding, officials said.
Rescuers discovered the team’s bicycles, soccer cleats and backpacks near the entrance, and handprints and footprints farther in, but came up empty during their initial searches.
Experts from the US military, the UK, China and Australia were brought in to assist. But the effort was hampered by mud and heavy rains, which flooded and blocked access to the chamber where the group was believed to be.
“If you can think of taking a glass cup of coffee and trying to look through it, that’s the minimum of how that water was after the flood,” rescue-diving expert Butch Hendrick told CNN.
The divers “couldn’t see where they were going,” Hendrick said.
Workers took advantage of a brief window of good weather Monday to edge farther into a narrow passageway of a cave located on higher ground.
The divers had spent much of their day preparing for a final push through the cave network when they stumbled upon the team, officials said.
Stunning video footage released by the Thai navy’s specialops force showed the moment rescuers came upon the group.
The boys appeared to be huddled on a rocky slope inside the black cave, still wearing the red-
and-blue soccer jerseys they had on when they disappeared.
“We are coming. It’s OK. Many people are coming. We are the first,” a British rescuer tells the group in the video.
One of the boys asks what day it is. The rescuer replies, “Monday. You have been here . . . 10 days.
“You are very strong,” he tells the group.
No one had been in contact with the team since it went missing, and it was still unclear how they were able to stay alive.
“Miraculously, they found the kids, and they all seemed to be in good mental health,” Reymenants told the BBC. “Obviously very weak, but they’re all alive, and they’ve been sitting on a piece of rock in a dry room for about 10 days, so that is a miracle.”
Reymenants noted it is warm in the cave and water reportedly drips down from the walls at all times, likely helping them avoid dehydration and hypothermia.
“Kids usually can survive quite long without food, [but] they’re obviously very skinny, and there’s some muscle atrophy,” he said.
“[Navy medics] went to them with food and medication to get them back to strength.”
Officials said the cave network wends up and down and is extremely narrow, making it difficult for divers to navigate.
When the water levels dropped, divers deployed a rope line along the passage and sent the oxygen and other supplies along the way.
The boys were found about 300 to 400 yards past the section of the cave nicknamed “Pattaya Beach,” which is where rescuers thought they were located.
Family and friends who had held vigils at the cave entrance erupted in cheers when the learned the boys had been found.
Shamans and Buddhist monks had held prayers and made offerings at the cave imploring mountain spirits to return the boys.
Aisha Wiboonrungrueng, a mother of one of the boys, said she was going to cook her 11-yearold son, Chanin, a fried Thai om- elet — his favorite food — as soon as he returns home.
An uncle of a 13-year-old team member told Thai news outlet The Nation, “I am so glad that I cannot think of anything else.”
Another mother, Tinnakorn Boonpiem, worried what lasting effects the ordeal would have on her 12-year-old son.
“I’m so glad . . . I want to him to be physically and mentally fit. I am afraid he will be mentally affected by this incident,” she told AFP.