Osawatomie Native on Site of Mine Rescue

By Jeff Gulley

As the world watched and cheered the safe rescue of 33 miners in Chile, Osawatomie native Peter Murphy Lewis stood just a short distance away.

“It was just unforgettable,” he said. “It was life changing. It was similar to the earthquake in Haiti but everything here was positive.”

Lewis, a lecturer in political science at the University of Chile, was on site as the miners were rescued, working as part of an ABC news crew who contracted with him last Tuesday.

“ABC called and asked me to meet their crew at the airport and have a van with supplies ready to go,” he said. “We had to pass three check points before we got to the mine and did not have press passes yet. We were told the first miner was going to come up at 8 p.m. and we arrived at 7 p.m. but the rescue was delayed which was a good thing for us. From 7:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. it was a circus atmosphere.”

Lewis’ role with the ABC crew was a fixer. He would find people for the crew to interview, like family members who had arrived on site, government officials or those with anti-mining views.

When the first miner was rescued, Lewis was able to stay in the family cafeteria and cried along with the family members watching.

“There was an anxiety, not nerves, when the first miner came up,” he said. “Everyone thought it would be a success and after the first, the family members were no longer scared.”

As the miners were being rescued, he also noticed another startling thing.

“When the first group of miners was taken down the mountain to the hospital, their family members stayed at the mine,” he said. “No one wanted to leave until the last man was rescued. They didn’t want the first to be more important than the last. There was a real solidarity among them.”

Lewis also came away from the event with a new appreciation for the media.

“It was very important to them to get facts correct,” he said. “I was asked repeatedly to confirm facts on the people we interviewed.”

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Posted by admin on Oct 20 2010. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry