November 11, 2025 - Miners hit a previously unknown pocket of water inside the Rolling Thunder Mine in Drennen, West Virginia Saturday. Working miners escaped the flooding mine, but one did not make it out. 

Cave diving rescue experts from the National Cave Rescue Commission, which is part of the National Speleological Society, are assisting with the rescue. 

“There have been a number of dive teams that have been going down and exploring all the potential areas where there may be air pockets,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a press briefing Monday Nov. 10. “At the same time, there’s been a very aggressive dewatering effort to try to pull the water from the mine to make things go a lot faster.”

The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety, and Training (OMHST) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) have been on the scene. 

Nicholas County Commissioner Garrett Cole said the other miners have been accounted for and that the trapped miner was believed to be about three-quarters of a mile into the mine. 

The Rolling Thunder mine is owned by Alpha Metallurgical  Resources. 

Morrisey explained the additional problems faced by rescuers. 

“When you have to go through the water, there are different training requirements to be a skilled diver than there are to be a mine safety worker,” he said. “They’ve explored large swaths of the cave. They are very hopeful that they’re going to continue to be very aggressive dewatering efforts, which they believe is the best way to have the quickest ability to search for the remaining parts of the cave that have yet to be reviewed.”

Morrisey said he had been asked about the odds of success, but he said he refused to engage in such discourse. 

“I’m going to just do everything I can to help out and work with the company, work with the relevant agencies, take the counsel of professionals, because this is a very serious situation dealing with not only the water, but what happens with the gas and the lack of oxygen in an area,” he said.

The governor said he did not believe it is appropriate to release the name of the missing miner at this time. 

United Mine Workers of America International President Brian Sanson issued the following statement today:

“The coal mining family has suffered two incidents in the last week in West Virginia: a fatality in Tucker County and now a missing miner in Nicholas County. I have ordered our safety experts to the Rolling Thunder mine in Nicholas County to provide professional assistance to the teams working to find the missing miner,” he wrote. “The hearts and prayers of the entire United Mine Workers of America family go out to these miners and their families. Even though the workers at these two mines are not members of the UMWA, that doesn’t matter at a time like this. We are all coal miners, and we all care about the safety and health of each other.”