Monday evening update on Massey Mine Disaster

[Omaha Steve]

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/

April 13, 2010 by Ken Ward Jr.



Chunks of coal bearing the names of the 29 miners who died in the explosion at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W. Va. a week ago Monday, appear in a makeshift memorial in Whitesville, W.Va. on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Workers were able to remove the bodies of the last 9 miners from the mine earlier this morning. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

Things have been moving fast, with lots of announcements and the national news media still hanging on a bit and following a few threads on this awful story.

Here are some updated that we’ve got at the Gazette:

– MSHA reveals that a computer programming error led it to wrongly fail to send Massey Energy and enforcement warning letter for the Upper Big Branch Mine in the months prior to last week’s horrible explosion.

– Government studies have warned for several years that the coal-dust standards meant to protect against such explosions are way out of date — they were put in place in the 1920s.

Stay tuned …