Thai rescuers yesterday said they might be prodded into a complex extraction of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave complex if forecast rains hammer the mountainside and jeopardize the rescue mission.
Thirteen sets of diving equipment have been prepared for the team, who have endured 12 nights underground in the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Thailand, a saga that has transfixed a nation and united Thais in prayers for their safe return.
Water is being pumped out from the deluged cave system around the clock, reducing the flooding by 1cm per hour.
Photo: Reuters
However, with rain forecast to begin today, the governor of Chiang Rai Province helming the unprecedented rescue effort conceded that the mission was now “a race against the water.”
“Our biggest concern is the weather. We are calculating how much time we have if it rains, how many hours and days,” Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters, without providing further details.
In a sign of increased urgency, Narongsak said medics and Royal Thai Navy special operations divers were assessing whether the boys are fit and well enough to be taken out early — apparently softening his insistence on Wednesday that “no risk” would be taken with the evacuation.
The prospect of the stranded team diving out is fraught with risk.
It takes seasoned cave diving experts about six hours to reach the muddy ledge where the boys are sheltering.
Many of the youngsters — who are aged between 11 and 16 — are unable to swim and none have diving experience.
Three days after contact was made with the group, navy special forces continued to teach them the basics of diving.
However, the areas where diving is still necessary are tight and might require the boys to swim through murky waters unaccompanied.
The looming rains have further tweaked anxiety among relatives of the trapped team, who on Wednesday appeared smiling, wrapped in foil blankets and in good health in video footage circulated by the navy.
“Yesterday I felt hopeful... Today I heard the rain is coming,” said Sunida Wongsukchan, the great aunt of one of the boys, 14-year-old Ekkarat Wongsukchan, who goes by the nickname “Bew.” “I’m very worried.”
In a two-pronged strategy, rescuers are also hunting for a chimney down to the boys, creating a potential second option for evacuation in the event heavy rains force their hand.
They have enlisted the help of expert bird-watchers attuned to finding hidden holes on forested mountainsides.
Authorities still hope they can manage any fresh deluge, with high-powered pumps having drained 128 million liters of water from the cave in a round-the-clock effort.
“We are draining as much as we can,” said Khao Khieupakdi, a Bangkok disaster prevention official, who like scores of other specialists has been seconded to northern Thailand.
Water has been cleared from the entrance to a rescue base camp in “chamber three” inside the cave, but onward sections toward the boys remain impassable without diving, he said.
“I am concerned, as the forecast said is for more rain,” he added.
Officials have ruminated on the possibility of the boys remaining in the cave until the monsoon season passes in three or four months.
However, that option is a last resort and might have to be taken off the table if flooding worsens.
Concerns for the mental and physical health of the boys are also mounting after a prolonged ordeal in the dark, claustrophobic cave complex.
Experts have said the risk of psychological damage is high for youngsters trapped in traumatic conditions, while the lack of light might cause confusion.
British cave divers found the emaciated and disheveled group on Monday, huddled on a muddy shelf with flood waters lapping ominously below, after nine days missing.
Several navy divers and medics have been staying with them and the video footage showed the group in seemingly good spirits.
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