W. Virginia Mourns Mine Victims
Private Funerals Span Several Days, As Investigations Into Tragedy Resume
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Play CBS Video Video Town Mourns Coal Miners Families began to bury loved ones involved in the coal mine tragedy that took the lives of 12 men. Randall Pinkston reports on the funerals and the medical condition of "The Miracle Miner."
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Video Burying W. Va. Miners In West Virginia, families and friends are bidding farewell to six of the miners who died in the mine explosion last week. CBS News' Randall Pinkston reports.
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Video Paying Respects To The Miners Web Exclusive: Randall Pinkston reports from West Virginia where services and funerals are being held for the 12 victims of the mine explosion.
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Friends and family of Jack Weaver, one of the 12 miners who were trapped and killed in the coal mine explosion in Tallmansville, W. Va., gather for the burial Sunday, Jan. 8, 2006 in Philippi, W. Va. (AP)
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Cars drive past twelve black ribbons tied on the perimeter fence of the Sago Mine in Tallmansville, W . Va., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2006, in memory of the 12 coal miners who died. (AP)
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This 2003 photo provided by the family of Randal McCloy, shows McCloy, the sole survivor of the mine explosion in Tallmansville, W. Va. with his son Randal Jr. (AP)
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Owen Jones, in the purple jacket, carries the casket containing his brother, miner Jesse Jones, to a hearse with other pallbearers, Jan. 8, 2006. (GETTY)
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Photo Essay All Hope Lost Anguish besets a West Virginia town as 12 of 13 miners are found dead after an explosion.
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Photo Essay Mine Explosion Tragedy unfolds after a coal mine explosion in Tallmansville, West Virginia.
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Interactive Mine Tragedy Here is a closer look at the miners who perished in West Virginia and the people who are mourning them.
The lone survivor of the mine remain hospitalized and had yet to wake up Sunday afternoon after several days of heavy sedation.
Near the mine, which has been sealed off by federal and state regulators, more than 100 people gathered Sunday morning at the Sago Baptist Church, the building where the kept vigil for more than 40 hours after the explosion last Monday.
Churchgoers sang hymns, including "The Sweet Bye and Bye" and "Farther Along," which speak of accepting God's unfathomable plan, and the Rev. Wease Day urged worshippers not to look for someone to blame.
Instead, Day said, worshippers should imagine they had only 10 hours to live, and write a note about how they would spend those final hours.
The surviving miner, 26-year-old Randal McCloy Jr., was hospitalized in Morgantown, after being transferred late Saturday from Pittsburgh, where he had under gone special treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning.
He had been in a medically induced coma to allow his brain time to heal, and while hospital officials said in a statement Sunday that his sedation had been stopped, they said it would take awhile for the medication to clear his system.
"It has been very difficult to allow him to awaken, although that is our hope today," said Dr. Larry Roberts, the head of McCloy's treatment team at West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital. Once that happens, they can begin neurological testing to determine the extent of the damage McCloy suffered in the mine.
Roberts said McCloy had shown signs of improvement since Saturday but remained in critical condition.
McCloy's wife, Anna, spoke briefly with reporters at the hospital, asking that attention Sunday focus on those whose lives were to be remembered.
"We are thinking of them today and throughout this difficult time and we ask you to please keep all the families in your thoughts and prayers," she said.
Outside Weaver's funeral, 72-year-old Sam Felton said that's just what the families of those killed at Sago mine need.
"Keep praying for us," he said.
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