well, technically, anyway. My daddy did spend a couple days working in a coal mine before he decided it wasn’t for him. But both of my grandfathers were coal-miners, and so when I read stories like this, my heart sinks.

Thirteen coal miners are trapped 1-2 miles underground after an explosion at a coal mine in WVA, about 100 miles from Charleston. Charleston is just a couple hours away from where my grandparents were coal-miners.

At this time, they don’t know the status of the trapped miners. Six others made it out alive, and refused treatment.

Those of you who pray, please join me in praying these miners will be rescued alive, and that their families will find comfort throughout this ordeal.

If praying’s not your thing, please offer your warm thoughts, good wishes, or whatever works for you.

This is a small thing in the grand scheme of the world’s problems, but it’s a huge thing to those 13 families in WVA, whose world exploded this morning about 8am eastern time.

Update: The news article has been updated, and they’re now saying the explosion took place around 6-630am, at shift change. No idea what caused it, but there was severe weather in the area, and they’re speculating maybe a lightning strike was the culprit.

Update 2: The 630pm national news tells me that the special rescue team has arrived and entered the mine. They also said that fresh air has been pumped into the mine all day, but they have no way of knowing if any of it is reaching the trapped miners. I hope it is, because from what I’ve read, their personal air devices only give them about 7 hours of air.