Rescuers in Pennsylvania are desperately searching for a grandmother who they believe may have fallen into a huge hole while searching for her cat.
Audio monitoring equipment and heavy machinery are on site at the Margaret, Pennsylvania site, where the search for Elizabeth Pollard extends into a second day.
Authorities say the ground on which they operate is fragile, unstable and at further risk of collapse. Margaret, a village that was formerly a coal town, is prone to sinkholes due to past mining activity.
Pennsylvania State Police said early Wednesday they were pumping water through the long-abandoned mine, removing debris before vacuuming it away.
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While this method makes it easier to see what is underground, “ The safety of this mine is beginning to be compromisedTrooper Steve Limani said at a news conference, according to CNN, adding that they “will probably have to switch gears” and do more complex digging.
Crews worked through the night in the Unity Township community of Margaret to find 64-year-old Pollard.
Pollard was last seen Monday evening, when she left her home to look for her cat, Pepper. Her family called police around 1 a.m. Tuesday to report she had never returned.
Police said they found Pollard’s car parked near Union Restaurant on Monday in Margaret. The hole was less than 20 feet from her car.
Her 5-year-old granddaughter, who was later found safe and well, was left in the car at the time.
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“Thank God she stayed in the car,” Limani said, noting that the temperature dropped in the evening.
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Fishermen and restaurant workers who were in the area in the hours before Pollard’s disappearance were unable to see the manhole-sized hole, leading rescuers to speculate that the hole was new.
Once the hole was discovered, “it became an all-encompassing scenario,” Limani said, and dozens were called to the scene, including an excavation team, a mining expert, search and rescue specialists and first responders. .
Limani said a camera placed in the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface. He described the shoes as “modern” and said they did not appear to be a remnant of the town’s mining days.
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“It’s like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said.
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In an interview with CBS News, Pollard’s son, Axel Hayes, said he was feeling a mix of emotions.
“I’m upset that it hasn’t been found yet, and I’m really worried about whether or not it’s even possible It’s still there“Where she is is there, or she went somewhere and found a safer place,” Hayes said.
“Right now, I just hope that she is alive and well, that she can make it, that my niece still has a grandmother, and that I still have a mother that I can talk to.”
A team from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which responded to the accident site, concluded that the underground void was likely the result of work at the Margaret Mine, which the H.C. Freak Coke Company last operated in 1952. The length of the Pittsburgh coal seam is approx. 20 feet (6 m) below the surface in that area.
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Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Neil Shader said the state Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation will examine the scene after the search is completed to see if the hole was actually caused by mine subsidence.
—With files from The Associated Press
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