33 Men by Jonathan Franklin

Author:Jonathan Franklin
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-13T16:00:00+00:00

DAY 27: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

From a distance the rescue site at the San José copper mine looked like a construction site gone mad. Huge cranes rattled twenty-four hours a day, transporting metal tubes the length of a ship’s mast with ease. Cement trucks, bulldozers, backhoes and robotic mine machines that looked like insects prowled the mountainside. Parking lots were filled with supplies ranging from a field of drill bits to twenty-eight pallets packed with charcoal. Placed in an oil drum and lit, the burning charcoal served as a night-light and heater for the estimated twenty policemen stationed as sentries along the hillside.

Shifts of helmeted men, their huge hands grubby and their faces slow to smile, were evidence of the arduous task that had gathered hundreds of rescue workers for the past four weeks. Inside the mess tent were men from Brazil, South Africa, the United States and Canada who joined hundreds of highly trained Chileans. These rescue workers had missed their children’s birthdays and abandoned their families to fly to the Atacama Desert to help. They volunteered for twelve-hour shifts to try to save men they didn’t know, men they might never meet.

Caravans of 4x4 pickups arrived with food, machinery and donations. “We are here to provide support to the families and the kids. Every four or five days we bring milk and yogurt to these one hundred and eighty people,” said Adolfo Duran, distribution supervisor for Soprole foods, pointing to stacks of yogurt cartons and crates of milk. “The feeling of fraternity has been augmented heavily this year; first we had the earthquake and now this. Personally, I feel like our nation has become much stronger this year.”

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