Joy and Ernest Morgan of Valley View lost their second son, Dennis, in the Porter Tunnel Mine disaster on March 1, 1977.
Time hasn’t salved the sorrow.
“We relive that a lot,” Joy said. “It was a nightmare … It ruined our lives.”
Dennis and eight other miners perished after an inrush of water swept through the mine at approximately 11:50 a.m. in one of the worst Pennsylvania mine disasters in the second half of the 20th century.
Unknown danger
According to the investigative report compiled by the state, 84 mine employees of Kocher Coal Co. Inc. were underground — 19 working in the West Skidmore South Dip Gangway section, where the flooding originated.
The source of the water was abandoned workings below the Porter Tunnel Mine, developed by bootleg miners in the 1930s and ‘40s. Those workings were never surveyed or drawn on any mine maps.
Following a routine blast, the accumulated water broke through a hole in the mine floor, leaving parts of the mine under nearly 150 feet of water and drowning several of the men almost instantly.
One miner, Ronald Adley, 37, of Tower City, was rescued after six days underground.
Four others were injured.
Ernest, then 50 years old, was one of the injured miners.
When rescuers reached Ernest at 3:45 p.m., he was wrapped around a support beam and had ingested mine water that had been stagnant in the bootlegged mine for decades.
“They didn’t expect him to make it,” Joy said.
Ernest was only worried about his 30-year-old son.
“I was thinking about Dennis, whether he got out or not,” Ernest said.
Ernest stayed in the hospital for a week. Dennis wasn’t found for 28 days.
“You didn’t know if he was dead or alive. All kinds of things go through your mind,” Joy said. “I was over there day and night.
“I’d be over by the tunnel, then I’d run back to the hospital, and then I’d go back to the tunnel. I don’t know where I got my energy.”
Joy said Ernest was sure Dennis would make it out.
“He kept telling us that he was alive, that they would get him out,” Joy said.
“I just hoped and prayed,” Ernest said.
When Dennis’ body was brought out of the mine in a bag, Joy said she wasn’t allowed to see him, which was one of the hardest parts.
“The funeral director said he wished he never saw him,” Ernest said.
Dennis and his wife, Barbara, had three children under 11 years old at the time. He had been working in the mine for two years. Dennis, his father and Philip Sabotino — who also died — were going to start their own mine the week after the disaster.
Following the accident, Ernest didn’t go back to work because of stomach and lung ailments from the inundation.
“And she (Joy) couldn’t sleep next to me for a time because I would have nightmares, and jump up in bed,” Ernest said.
“Nobody knows how hard it is … it took a couple years away from our lives,” Joy said. “But I just keep thinking he’s in a better place.”
Waiting and praying
When word spread around the factory where Anna Mae Adley was working about an accident in the Porter Tunnel, she didn’t think too much about it. Accidents happened, she thought, and a couple of her co-workers were called to go home.
She finished her shift.
In the six days that her husband, Ronald, was trapped in the tunnel, a frightened Anna Mae sat in a small room on mine property with the family members of the missing.
Anna Mae and the others weren’t allowed near the tunnel, spending their time praying and waiting.
She said she left only briefly once — for a shower — then returned to her vigil. Adley left their three children in the care of her mother and sister-in-law.
“It was horrible,” Adley said. “They offered us food, but we couldn’t swallow, we couldn’t think.
“It was like bleeding to death really slowly,” Adley said. “Like they were taking your heart out, and you didn’t know what was going on, but you knew you were dying.”
Ronald used a piece of metal to tap continually against the rock until he was heard by rescuers, who drilled a series of holes and inserted pipes through which Adley was passed food, drink and dry clothing.
“He didn’t know where the other guys were, it was dark, and two of the men near him were already dead,” she said.
Despite the harrowing experience, Ronald returned to work in the mines.
“He was still the same guy after it happened,” Adley said. “He appreciated life a little more, I think.”
Adley died in 1995.
It took recovery teams until March 30 to recover the bodies of Mark Kroh and Timothy Grouse.
‘Written in blood’
Though the Porter Tunnel Mine fatalities were devastating, Paul L. Hummel, Anthracite & Industrial Minerals Safety Division Chief for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said all mine accidents are equally regrettable, including the recent death of Dale R. Reightler at the Buck Mountain Slope mine in Tremont on Oct. 23, 2006.
“One fatality is as bad as 10,” Hummel said. “This last one at R&D — devastating. When you have to go see his wife, his widow, and his children … it makes this job pretty tough.
“That’s life in this business, though,” Hummel said.
Despite the nature of the industry, Hummel said mine officials try to come away from each and every accident with a lesson to be made into a law, preventing such occurrences in the future.
“This,” Hummel said, holding up a thick booklet of mine laws, “is written in blood. Somebody died for all this stuff to be written. It’s a nasty way to put it, but it’s true.”
After the Porter Tunnel incident, mine officials insisted on advanced drilling in the veins so workers could determine what abandoned workings might be in front of them. Hummel said several holes of at least 20 feet must be kept in advance of all working faces, holes at or near the center of the working place and sufficient flank holes on each side of said place.
Hummel said since 1977 there has not been a similar occurrence.
Following an investigation of the accident in 1977, the mine reopened.
As of 2006, the Porter Tunnel Mine has been sealed and fortified with steel and concrete due to its position under Route 209.
VICTIMS:
Gary Lee Klinger, Hegins
Mark “Pat” Kroh, Good Spring
Timothy Leroy Grouse, Ashland
Philip Sabatino, Hegins
Donald Shoffler, Gordon
Ronald Russell Herb, Valley View
Dennis Lee Morgan, Valley View
John J. Meyer, Ashland
Ralph Renninger, hometown unavailable
For more information on the Porter Tunnel Mine disaster, visit:
www.usmra.com/saxsewell/portertunnel.htm
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