Rescuers desperately searching for a Pennsylvania grandmother down a 30-foot sinkhole are “switching gears” amid fears the ground could further open up below them.
Elizabeth Pollard, 64, has not been seen for more than 40 hours since she is assumed to have tumbled into an abandoned Pennsylvania coal mine while searching for her missing cat, with her 5-year-old granddaughter found asleep in her nearby car.
Officials believe the huge sinkhole opened up as Pollard walked over the area — and fear that ongoing efforts to find her will put rescuers in danger after the roof of the mine collapsed in several places.
Elizabeth Pollard, 64, likely fell into a sinkhole Monday afternoon. Family handoutAt one point during the efforts, crews ran out of oxygen, officials said.
“The integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” Trooper Steve Limani told reporters Wednesday, PennLive reported.
Water being pumped through to clear clay and dirt from the mine could cause “other mine subsidence to take place,” the trooper said.
“It’s putting some of the people at risk. And we’re probably going to have to switch gears, which might be a slower switching of gears and a little bit more complicated of a dig,” he warned.
Overnight, crews were lowered into the ground with harnesses on and could see mine shafts under the ground before they had to pull out due to the structural instability .
They made about 20 different holes in the ground but still no signs of the woman, sources told WPXI.
Teams are still sending cameras and listening devices down into the mine in their search, officials said.
A shoe that was spotted on a camera yesterday and offered a glimmer of hope was never recovered and there have been no other significant findings, Pleasant Unity Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Bacha told reporters around noon Wednesday, according to WTAE.
The 30-foot-deep fissure is believed to lead to an old coal mine. AP
Officials said Wednesday they would have to “switch gears” in the rescue efforts. AP“We did get where we thought she was at. We’ve been to that spot. What happened at that point, I don’t know,” he said.
“Maybe the slurry of mud pushed her in one direction. There are several different seams of that mine, the shafts, that all came together,” he added.
State trooper Cliff Greenfield said there is still “a very, very intensive effort” to locate the grandmother.
“We remain hopeful that she is found. The efforts are continuing,” Greenfield said.
As of noon Wednesday, the search remained a “rescue” effort rather than a “recovery” effort.
“We’re not using that word yet. We’re close,” Bacha conceded of the ever-slimming chances of finding her alive.
The grandma from Unity Township vanished around 5 p.m. Monday while searching for her missing feline named Pepper with her 5-year-old granddaughter.
The young girl was found safe around 2:50 a.m. Tuesday asleep in her grandma’s vehicle — which was found near the large fissure that had opened up behind Monday’s Union Bar and Grille.
“The sinkhole appears to have been created during the time Ms. Pollard was walking around. We don’t see a time when it would have been created earlier,” Limani said on Tuesday.
Some 100 emergency responders had been using a vacuum truck to suck the clay-like earth out of the sinkhole so they could place cameras and listening devices inside, but no signs of life have been found.
“Until you’re telling us there’s no chance, there’s a chance, and I know that there might be mathematical difficulties or maybe some science, but there’s people that were in mines an hour from here, they were in them longer and were recovered and saved,” Limani said.
