Entrance to a uranium mine, Matt Affloter, by permission, Wikipedia
Among those who watched and waited, upon whom the reality of the collapse inside the mountain was dawning, fear and dread and terror was nearly as great as it was for those down below.
As with the 33, both the immediate and the slow reckoning of the event broke upon them in waves. On the outside, the billows of dust exploding from the entrance was like nothing they had ever seen before. It was not unusual for dust to gush out when rocks would fall or when blasting occurred, but this was different and horrifying. The dust cloud kept belching out, too thick to penetrate, as much as if the dust of centuries, disturbed, was fleeing to the open air.
At first, only a few administrators and office workers stood outside their building, gazing in panic as the dust continued to pour from the entrance. Some were already weeping. The mine was a distance from town, but the dust cloud could be seen far off and by evening, when the absence of the miners at home became conspicuous (it wasn’t unusual for some of them to stop for a beer on the way home,) families began to arrive at the mine and to grasp what had happened. Very little information had come to them; they came to the mine.
“What are you going to do?” “Where are the drills and the trucks?” A few of the superiors had covered their faces as best they could and had endeavored to enter through the dust. Given what they saw from the outside, they had already begun to realize that any typical rescue effort involving heavy equipment to move rock and haul it away, would be massive, take weeks to accomplish, and could not be successful. Then, when at last they reached the section of the fallen slab, they knew that their friends, their co-workers, were lost … unless one believed in miracles and unless they got one, a miracle too big for the hope of those seasoned men.
Wait another day for an account of the early persistence of a few … but let’s consider today how true it is that we look sometimes upon mental and emotional illnesses, frightened and hardened hearts, deadly cold unbelief, as well as demonic bondage, and all we feel we can do … is weep. We have seen how unavailing have been all the attempts to help and how immovable is the enemy that bars the way. The deceptions of the enemy of souls stands between those we love and their deliverance, as immovable as was that gigantic piece of fallen mountain. His lies and bands of fear defy any help or rescue. Are we asking for a miracle too big? We see the obstacles, and we weep .
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