by yvonnedroms » Jan 12, 2011 9:08 pm
Update by Spéléo Secours Français for Saturday 8, Sunday 9 and Monday 10 January 2011:
Ever since the decision was made to stop the recovery operation, bitter discussions and arguments for and against have ensued, but the decision is now irrevocable. The objective was not achieved, but we can all be certain that the utmost was attempted. Now what is left to be done is to remove the enormous quantity of equipment from the cave: hundreds of yards of tubes, hoses, cables, ropes, and many hundreds of pounds of pumps... Without wasting any time, during the night of Friday to Saturday, the last exploration team had already removed everything behind Sump 2. Since Saturday, teams have been taking turns to retrieve all the gear, starting from the bottom up. The pumps, the hoses, the tubes and the cables from the dam to Sump 2 were brought to the surface.
On Sunday, the weather was not favorable, but that certainly had been the case ever since the beginning of the operation. Almost all the cavers present went underground. The high-pressure pumps at the dam are the heaviest loads. The smallest of the two had already been taken apart, so it was put in the rescue stretcher and started its trip upwards. By mid-afternoon, the weather conditions rapidly degraded, and rain increased. The water levels inside the cave increased even faster, and the Command Post ordered all cavers to return to the surface immediately. The outside stream's flow became a concern. A second dam was built near the entrance to contain it. Two pumps that had just made it to the surface immediately got put into service near the entrance of the Puits de Ronze, to pump away the water on both sides of it in order to protect the cavers still underground. The stretcher with the pump was abandoned in the cave, as well as any of the heavier loads, in order to facilitate the speedy exit of the rescuers. By the end of the afternoon, everyone was outside without incident, except maybe a little fright and a good shower.
By Monday, there was no more water at the surface and the cave was again accessible. The pump was dismantled at the base of the entrance pit, and finally pulled out. Then a series of large-diameter tubes and cables were pulled out of the cave. However, at the bottom, Sump 1 had filled up. The way to the dam was blocked. The pumps at Sump 1 were restarted on automatic so that on Tuesday, the largest and heaviest pump could be brought out.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011:
Dismanteling the pump at the dam was a priority, but first Sump 1 needed to be emptied, so a team went down to take care of repositioning the pumps when needed. In the meantime, the rest of the cavers were busy starting to bring out the high-pressure-pumps' drainage tubes. In the entrance pits, they started taking apart the pieces of tubing, but the stiffness of the polyethylene was not helping the maneuvering. The first length was extracted from the pit, but the second one would not budge. More equipment needed to come out of the cave, and various counterweights were set up in order to bring up the 200 pounds of gear. The electrical panel box got stuck behind the tight spot at mid-pit. The black polyethylene tube still would not budge. After a late lunch, a team went back down to dismantle the large pump behind Sump 1, and to try their best to bring the various parts upstream of the sump, if time and fatigue allowed. By the beginning of the evening, the mission was accomplished: there was nothing left behind Sump 1. Still the pump was left on automatic to continue emptying the sump in order to allow for one last visit, and to better be able to dismantle the equipment within it.
Given the good progress so far, and due to the lack of personnel who planned to be on site on Wednesday, the site will be closed that day. Dismanteling will restart on Thursday morning.
-Yvonne