Complications developed overnight into Wednesday morning in the search and rescue for a woman suspected of falling down a 30-foot sinkhole in Westmoreland County.
The sinkhole, a remnant of an abandoned mine, is becoming compromised and unsafe, state police said Wednesday, according to Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV. Crews are trying to locate Elizabeth Pollard, 64, who disappeared while looking for her cat in Union Township.
Trooper Steve Limani said crews are changing tactics because of fears further subsidence may happen.
KDKA said Trooper Limani reported that the cold water that engineers are using to help flush dirt out of the mine is causing distress on the integrity of the mine.
"We have to be very careful with the water issues we've been experiencing," Trooper Limani said, adding the search is still considered a rescue mission.
The trooper said there is now a plan that will involve more digging and putting supports in place to help bolster the mine's structure.
The massive search continued into the night Tuesday and into Wednesday.
“This is a rescue … until somebody says it’s not,” Trooper Limani said shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday. “I know that every single person on this line — until you’re telling us there’s no chance, there’s a chance.”
Cameras dropped down the 30-foot shaft saw little in the darkness but discovered what appeared to be a shoe, police said.
Crews used heavy machinery and their own hands to dig into the ground adjacent to the sinkhole, eventually creating a trench that connected to the mine shaft area. As evening turned to night, first responders were shoring up those trenches and continuing to dig by hand.
Trooper Limani said crews have broken through into the mine area but “we have not had any recovery efforts or any rescue efforts,” nor have crews identified where exactly Ms. Pollard might be.
“There’s zero stop in any of the rescue efforts,” he said. “If anything, they’re actually getting amplified now that we’ve been able to get access into the mine shaft area.” But that was before complications developed.
Ms. Pollard’s niece, Tabitha Pollard, spoke briefly to reporters, saying her uncle is “thankful for everybody’s support and continued prayers.”
Earlier Tuesday, crews used vacuums to clear away debris, but the moist soil and thick, clay-like dirt caused them to go to handwork to clear it away.
“It’s a little difficult to move, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” Trooper Limani said. “We’re going to do it, it’s just a matter of getting the people to do it, and we have the people.”
The trooper said the crews that were underground were getting ready to switch out with relief crews around 7 p.m.
By 7:30 p.m., special response units from nearby police and EMS departments were arriving on scene alongside trucks from Allegheny Crane Rental.
Authorities said Ms. Pollard left her home Monday evening to search for her missing cat, Pepper, and she was last seen around 5 p.m. Her family reported her missing around 1 a.m. on Tuesday.
Police found her car about two hours later. It was parked near Monday’s Restaurant on Marguerite Road with Ms. Pollard’s 5-year-old granddaughter inside. She was scared but unharmed, Trooper Limani said.
About 20 feet away from the car was a sinkhole about the width of a manhole. Authorities believe Ms. Pollard might have fallen in the sinkhole around the time it opened.
“The sinkhole appears to have been created during the time Ms. Pollard was walking around,” Trooper Limani said earlier Tuesday. “We don’t see a time when it would have been created earlier.”
Crews previously searched a nearby wooded area, but have zeroed in on the sinkhole as the most likely place Ms. Pollard went missing, the trooper said. The search included using drones in the area, and subsidence mining experts were on the scene.
Crews have kept a steady supply of oxygen flowing into the mine shaft. Trooper Limani said that while they have not heard any sounds inside the sinkhole, authorities remain optimistic.
“There were people that were in mines an hour from here that were in them longer and were recovered and saved,” he said, referencing the nine miners who were trapped in Quecreek mine in Somerset County for more than three days and successfully rescued in 2002.
“That doesn’t mean that this can’t happen here, it doesn’t mean that she can’t be in an air pocket somewhere. The fact that we didn’t find her immediately could be a good thing, right?”
First Published: December 3, 2024, 6:26 p.m.
Updated: December 4, 2024, 5:30 p.m.
