The body of a coal miner has been found in a flooded West Virginia mine, the governor says

Morrisey praised the crews who worked around the clock for days in hopes of a rescue.

“Our state knows this kind of pain all too well,” Morrisey said. “Mining is more than an industry here — it’s a brotherhood, a way of life, and a source of pride. When tragedy strikes, we grieve together, we stand together, and we support one another as one West Virginia family.”

A mining crew hit an unknown pocket of water on Saturday about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometers) into the mine, which flooded after an old mine wall “was compromised,” Morrisey said. More than a dozen other miners were accounted for after the accident was reported.

Lipscomb was last seen trying to make sure his crew got out of the mine safely, Alpha said in a statement.

“Our hearts are broken,” Alpha CEO Andy Eidson said.

Lipscomb, 42, of Elkview, joined Alpha in 2006 and “was a dedicated employee, respected leader and friend to many,” Eidson said. “His actions to ensure the safety of his crew members were heroic. On behalf of the entire organization, we extend our prayers and deepest sympathies to his wife, two children and all who knew and cared for him.”

The death is the third at an Alpha facility in West Virginia this year. The others occurred in nearby Raleigh County: An elevator being tested struck a miner on a first-floor platform in August at Alpha subsidiary Marfork Coal’s processing facility; and a coal seam fell on a contractor in February at Alpha’s Black Eagle underground operation, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Holes were drilled in the mine in an attempt to speed up the search process and dive teams explored potential areas in the water where air pockets might exist. The National Cave Rescue Commission provided surplus Army phones attached to wires that can travel great distances for better underground communication.

Rolling Thunder is one of 11 underground mines operated in West Virginia by Tennessee-based Alpha, which also operates four surface mines in the state, as well as three underground mines and one surface mine in Virginia.

Morrisey said the abandoned mine next to Rolling Thunder had been in operation in the 1930s and 1940s.

A report prepared in February for Alpha by an engineering consulting firm, Marshall Miller & Associates, said the area had been “extensively explored” by previous mine owners, generating “a significant amount of historical data” that Alpha examined in assessing its potential for producing coal.

The same report says the Rolling Thunder coal seam runs along and below the drainage of Twentymile Creek, but that there were “no significant hydrologic concerns” about digging for coal in the extensively mined property.

In 1968, in the same county, miners working for Gauley Coal and Coke at Hominy Falls accidentally tunneled into an unmapped abandoned mine nearby, flooding their operation. Four men died, but 15 miners were brought to the surface after five days, and six others further into the mine were rescued after 10 days.

In 2002 in southwestern Pennsylvania, nine miners were rescued after spending more than three days trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine.