The search for a woman believed to have fallen into a sinkhole in western Pennsylvania has turned into a recovery effort after two days of dangerous digging through mud and rock found no signs of life, authorities said Wednesday. Announced.
Crews searching for 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard packed up Wednesday night and planned to return Thursday morning.
Officer Steve Limani, a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman, said at a news conference that authorities no longer believe they will find Pollard alive, but they are continuing to work to find her body.
Limani said rescuers did not see “any signs of life or anything that made them feel the need to be proactive and continue to push the limits, even at the risk of harming others.” I couldn't do it,” he said. .
He pointed out that oxygen levels underground were insufficient.
Emergency services and others have been searching for Pollard for two days.
Her relatives reported her missing early Tuesday morning, and her car, carrying her unharmed 5-year-old granddaughter, was discovered about two hours later at a newly opened mine atop a long-closed, crumbling mine. It was discovered near what is believed to be a sinkhole.
“We feel like we failed,” Limani said of the decision to change the status of the effort from rescue to recovery. “It's tough.”
Limani praised the crew that entered the abandoned mine and helped remove material to search for Pollard in the village of Marguerite, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.
“They would come out of there covered in mud from head to toe, exhausted. And while they were being pulled out, the next group would drop in. And then the next group would drop in. There was group after group,” Limani said.
Authorities earlier said the roof of the mine had collapsed in several places, making it unstable.
“We certainly got where we wanted her to be, where we thought she was. We've been there,” said Pleasant Unity Fire Chief and incident operations officer. one John Basha said early Wednesday.
“We don't know what happened at that point, but perhaps the mud slurry was forced in one direction. There are several different seams in that mine, and where this happened, they all came together. I was there.”
Basha said searchers were using electronic equipment and cameras as heavy equipment continued to excavate the surface. With winter weather forecast for the area, the plan is to significantly widen the hole in the ground over the next few days.
Geological engineer Paul Santi said Mr Pollard's chances of survival if he fell into the sinkhole were “pretty slim”.
“There are a lot of problems,” said Santi, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines.
“There were rocks and dirt and things that could have buried her. There's water that could have filled it. We have to get through the rescue. But if she gives us the OK. I'd be surprised…that would require that she didn't die from a fall, that she didn't die from hitting a rock, that there was an air pocket and that she could survive in it. ”
Sinkholes have developed in the area due to land subsidence due to coal mining activities. Rescue teams were using water to dismantle the mine, which has been closed since the 1950s, and remove clay and soil.
The crew lowered a pole camera with a sensitive eavesdropping device into the hole, but nothing was detected. Limani said Tuesday that another camera lowered into the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet below the surface.
Searchers also deployed drones and thermal imaging equipment, but to no avail.
Pollard's family called police around 1 a.m. Tuesday to say he hadn't been seen since he went out looking for his cat, Pepper, around 5 p.m. Monday. . That night the temperature dropped to below freezing.
Limani said search teams met with the family before announcing the move from rescue to recovery. “I think they understand,” Limani said.
Pollard's son, Axel Hayes, described her as a happy woman who liked to go out and play.
She and her husband adopted Hayes and his twin brother when they were infants. She previously worked at Walmart but was not recently employed.
Hayes described Pollard as “an overall great person and a great mother” who “never really did anyone wrong.”
At one point, Pollard owned about 10 cats.
“She has a close bond with every cat she's ever had contact with,” Hayes said.
Police said they found Pollard's car parked behind Monday's Union Restaurant in Margaret, about 20 feet from the sinkhole.
Local hunters and restaurant workers said they hadn't noticed the manhole-sized opening in the hours before Pollard disappeared, leading rescuers to suspect the sinkhole was new. .
Pollard lived in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were found by state police. It is unknown what happened to the cat.
