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Wednesday 24th July, 2002, saw two shifts of miners- eighteen men all told- enter the Black Wolf Coal Company's Quecreek No. 1 mine; and what followed was the beginning of a disaster that was to command the entire world's attention. Seven hours later on that fateful day, nine men were trapped in a cavern 200 feet below the surface by swiftly rising water. The nine others, drenched and exhausted, had somehow managed to struggle out to safety. This is the gripping story of the disaster that so nearly became a tragedy, and the brilliant, heroic and desperate attempts of the rescuers who, three days later, finally succeeded in bringing the victims safely from their subterranean prison back to the light of day.
Andrew Morton, bestselling biographer of Diana, the late Princess of Wales, Monica Lewinsky and Madonna to name but a few, spent weeks in Pennsylvania in his quest for the truth. His book is at once an uplifting testament to the resilience and resourcefulness of humanity, and a gripping, hour-by-hour account of a drama that kept the world spellbound. |