Overview
- Gov. Patrick Morrisey says the effort remains a rescue operation as water removal continues around the clock entering the sixth day.
- Pumping has reached roughly 6,000 gallons per minute after additional units were added, yet levels are still too high for safe entry.
- Dive teams are on site, initial holes have been drilled, and long‑range wired phones supplied by the National Cave Rescue Commission are improving underground communications.
- The mine flooded after a crew struck an unknown pocket of water and an adjacent old mine wall was compromised; other miners escaped and were accounted for.
- Authorities have not released the missing worker’s identity; Rolling Thunder is operated by Alpha Metallurgical Resources, whose February engineering report noted no significant hydrologic concerns in the area.