Rescuers up against 'water and time' to save remaining teammates trapped in Thai cave [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Rescuers up against 'water and time' to save remaining teammates trapped in Thai cave

Global July 09, 2018

Tham Luang caves, Thailand (CNN)The operation to rescue the remaining boys and their coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand was expected to resume Monday morning, but heavy rain threatened to further complicate the mission.

Four of the 12 boys were extracted from the Tham Luang cave network in the Chiang Rai province Sunday evening, before the operation was suspended overnight to allow oxygen tanks to be refilled before rescue teams begin the next phase.

The four boys, who were taken to a Chiang Rai hospital for further medical examination, are said to be in good health, with their condition described by officials as "not that bad."

But rescue teams don't have an abundance of time. Rain began to fall on Sunday, and more rain is forecast throughout the coming days, which could undo the ongoing efforts to drain the flooded caverns where the other boys remain trapped.

"We have two obstacles: water and time," said Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osotthanakorn earlier Sunday, as rain began to fall across the site near the cave entrance.

"This is what we have been racing against since day one," he said. "We have to do all we can, even though it is hard to fight the force of nature."

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'A very smooth operation'

Sunday's mission went quicker than it had in drills over the last several days, according to Osotthanakorn.

Previously, the entire round trip through the cave network was thought to take about 11 hours. But the first of the four boys emerged from the cave entrance about nine hours after a team of 18 international cave diving experts went in to retrieve them.

An ambulance leaves the Tham Luang cave area after divers evacuated some of the 12 boys trapped with their coach for 15 days.

The boys wore "full face masks and the rescue divers carried them out through the passage in the cave complex," Osotthanakorn said in a news conference after the rescue.

"It was a very smooth operation today," he added.

While the governor would not confirm the identities of the four boys, he said the first one emerged at 5:40 p.m., followed by the second boy 10 minutes later. Two other boys emerged from the cave at 7:40 p.m. and 7:50 p.m.

Twelve boys -- aged between 11 and 16 -- and their coach, were discovered by two British divers on July 2, nine days after they abandoned their bicycles and disappeared into the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex.

Pressure mounting as rain dominates forecasts

Rescuers have a dwindling window of opportunity, with forecasters predicting the return of heavy monsoon rains in the coming days, effectively sealing off the cave until October.

It was the rain that stranded the boys and their coach inside the cave to begin with, after they ventured into the cave network last month.

"The heaviest rain has yet to come," said CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Rain is forecast for at least the next three days.

Rescue teams have been helped by the fact that the rain stopped for several days, allowing water to be pumped out of the cave and making it possible for the four boys and specialist rescue teams to make the final leg of the journey on foot.

Osotthanakorn told reporters there would be a meeting Sunday evening to plan next steps, and that authorities want to ensure conditions are stable before beginning the next phase of the rescue.

A dangerous journey

Those still inside the cave are perched on a small muddy ledge 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) inside the cave complex, surrounded by floodwater and with a limited supply of oxygen.

For the boys -- some of whom can't swim -- the most dangerous part of the journey out of the labyrinth cave system remains the first kilometer, in which they are required to pass through a flooded channel no wider than a person.

During this process, rescuers need to hold the boys' oxygen tanks in front of them and swim pencil-like through submerged holes. Having completed this section, the boys are then handed over to separate, specialist rescue teams, who help assist them through the remainder of the cave, much of which they can wade through.

Initially, officials said the strongest boys would be taken out of the cave first.

But Osottanakorn said on Sunday it would be up to boys and a doctor inside the cave with them to determine the order in which they would exit. That decision would also depend on a medical examination by the doctor.

"I don't know who will come out first," the governor added.

Divers have previously described conditions in the cave network as some of the most extreme they have ever faced.

The decision to move the boys using divers has not been taken lightly. On Friday, a former Thai Navy SEAL died while returning from an operation to deliver oxygen tanks to the cave.

Finnish volunteer diver Mikko Paasi, a long-term resident of Thailand, said the death of the Thai Navy SEAL had changed the mood on the ground and made real for rescuers just how dangerous the mission had become.

"Definitely, you can feel it that it has an effect, but we're moving on. Everyone is a professional so we're trying to put it away and avoid it happening again," he said, adding: "Everybody is focusing on getting these boys out -- keeping them alive or getting them out."

Water is pumped out of the cave during rescue efforts on Tuesday, July 3.