US EditionMine Worker Dies Saving Crew in Nicholas County Mine
The flooding was caused by striking a water pocket and breaching an old mine wall, with over a dozen miners safely accounted for, officials said.
- On Thursday, Nov. 13, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced a two-man crew recovered foreman Steve Lipscomb's body just before 9 a.m. inside Rolling Thunder Mine near Belva, Nicholas County.
- A mining crew hit an unknown water pocket last Saturday, leading to flooding after an old mine wall was compromised despite a February report by Marshall Miller & Associates indicating no hydrologic concerns.
- Rescue teams drilled holes and deployed dive teams while the National Cave Rescue Commission provided surplus Army phones for underground communication, with pumps operating at approximately 6,000 gallons per minute and extra units added on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
- More than a dozen miners were accounted for and several evacuated safely, while the death is the third at an Alpha Metallurgical Resources Inc. facility in West Virginia this year.
- Alpha Metallurgical Resources Inc. operates Rolling Thunder Mine, one of 11 underground West Virginia mines, and also runs surface mines and Virginia operations; past flooding includes the 2002 Quecreek rescue and 1968 Hominy Falls.
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The unsung hero of Rolling Thunder Mine
KANAWHA COUNTY, West Virginia — Steve Lipscomb was a son, a father, a husband, a Marine, a man of faith, and a coal miner. Ten days ago, Lipscomb and his crew encountered an unknown pocket of water when a “sudden and substantial” flood sent millions of gallons into the Rolling Thunder Mine. Lipscomb lived up to his life of service, faith, family, and community by ensuring his entire crew made it out safely. Officials said that as Lipscomb finish…
Body of ‘heroic’ West Virginia miner trapped in flooded mine recovered after intense 5-day effort
Rescue crews recovered the body of coal miner Steven Lipscomb, five days after the dad of two and retired Marine became trapped in the flooded Rolling Thunder Mine in West Virginia.
West Virginia Coal Miner Found Dead After 5-Day Search
A missing miner in West Virginia was found dead on Nov. 13 after a five-day search, Alpha Metallurgical Resources confirmed in a statement. Steve Lipscomb, a 42-year-old foreman at the Rolling Thunder Mine, was discovered at 7:37 a.m. by a two-man search team, part of a rescue effort that followed a flood Saturday in the Nicholas County mine in the center of the state. “Our hearts are broken,” Alpha CEO Andy Eidson wrote in a public statement on…
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