For a moment...

[G-force]

Yeah, me too. He's gotta feel either lucky or kinda bad, being the only one who made it out. Poor guys... That's just an awful way to die.

I'm gonna ignore the rules for a minute here and ask that any people that wish to, please pray for the guy who lived and for the familys of the ones who didn't make it.

[Skyone]

I heard about it this morning. What the biggest heartbreak is when news got out they all lived. Later this news was found out to be fake.

[Weebl]

I sure will be praying for them G-force. I'm sure their families could use some comfort and relief. Even worse than losing someone in a coal mining accident would be what happened, and have them think their loved one got out alive. Its like losing them all over again, I imagine. My deepest sympathies go out to these families.

[gamefunatic]

i only saw the news last night...sad very sad, how cruel of the press to make a mistake like thinking 12 were alive and 1 was dead, it devastated families all around, and even if it was an accident still

[Bay_Wolf]

Miners' Notes: They Died In Peace

Some of the 12 coal miners who died following an explosion left notes behind assuring family members that their final hours trapped underground were not spent in agony, a relative said Thursday.

One was found attached to the clothing of 50-year-old Terry Helms, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"The medical examiner told his niece, Michelle Mouser, that the note read 'he went in peace,'" Pinkston said.

The wording suggests that Helms didn't write the note himself, but rather, one of the other miners who perished after him.

"Whoever it was, we want to just thank them for leaving us a note," said another Helms relative, Judy Shackelford, on CBS News' The Early Show.

Meanwhile, "miracle survivor" Randal McCloy remained in critical condition Thursday at West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston. He is on a respirator and is unable to talk, but somehow he managed to respond to his wife, through facial expressions and squeezing her hand, reports Pinkston.

"The notes said they weren't suffering, they were just going to sleep," said Peggy Cohen, who had been called to a makeshift morgue at a school to identify the body of her father, 59-year-old mining machine operator Fred Ware Jr.

Cohen said a note was not left with Ware's body, but the medical examiner told her notes left with several of the bodies all carried a similar message: "Your dad didn't suffer."

The tragedy has hit the community hard, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Krasula. "Black ribbons are out, flags are flying at half staff, signs and marquees outside businesses offer messages of sympathy, and faces are long."

Federal investigators looking into the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 12 miners have promised to ask tough questions about the misinformation that that filtered to relatives indicating most of their loved ones had survived.

The community's residents want to know how an explosion two miles into a mountain had trapped 13 of their men and how someone could tell them that 12 of the miners had somehow survived the blast.

Most of all, they want to know who got the information wrong, and to understand why state and company officials let them rejoice for more than two hours before telling them that instead of 12 survivors, they would be bringing home 12 corpses.

"It was an emotional rollercoaster. We had that hope one time and then the next time we had bad news," Shackelford said. "But we kind of knew that [Terry Helms] was probably the first one to go because of his job and where he got off of the belt. But we're dealing with it."

Families and friends of the 12 men huddled at a candlelight vigil Wednesday night just across from the mine entrance, offering prayers and remembering the dozen fathers, sons and brothers that were lost.

The nation's deadliest coal mining accident in more than four years began with an explosion 260 feet underground early Monday that federal investigators have yet to explain. But coal mine explosions are typically caused by buildups of naturally occurring methane gas or highly combustible coal dust in the air.

David Dye, who heads the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said the investigation — which will likely focus on the buildup of naturally occurring methane gas and coal dust in the mine — will also probe "how emergency information was relayed about the trapped miners' conditions."

Ben Hatfield, chief executive of mine owner International Coal Group Inc., said that the Ashland, Ky.-based company did the best it could under extreme stress and exhaustion, and that officials "sincerely regret" the families were left to believe for so long that their loved ones were alive.

"In the process of being cautious, we allowed the jubilation to go on longer than it should have," a choked-up Hatfield said.

[Metroid fan]

Yeah, me too. He's gotta feel either lucky or kinda bad, being the only one who made it out. Poor guys... That's just an awful way to die.

Well they left notes saying that they didn't die painfully it was just like falling asleep no pain at all. So thats one good thing