Trapped Chilean miners still alive three weeks after collapse

Thirty-three Chilean miners trapped for nearly three weeks are still alive in an underground shelter, but officials say it could take nearly four months to dig them out. Rescue workers drilled a small hole to serve as an umbilical cord to the trapped miners, and pulled a handwritten note out of the mine on Sunday that read, “We are fine in the shelter, the 33 of us.” The workers have been trapped since the copper and gold mine caved in on August 5, but workers will have to proceed slowly to drill a larger shaft because of the mine’s depth and instability caused by the collapse. Rescue workers now plan to use the hole to send plastic tubes containing glucose, hydration gels and food down to the miners to keep them alive while they dig a new shaft to extract them.

CNN