One W.Va. hollow awaits word on 3 of its own

[April 20, 2010]  DOROTHY, W.Va. (AP) -- Along Clear Fork Road, tiny communities blend seamlessly, bound by geography, coal mining and the sheltering mountains all around. Anxiety cinches them closer than usual this week.

Caption: In this image released by Kathy Duncan on Wednesday, Ronald Maynor of Clear Creek, W.Va., is shown after a hunting trip. Maynor is among the miners not accounted for after Monday's mine explosion in the Upper Big Branch Mine. (AP photo by Mark Humphrey)

Days after an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine eight miles away killed 25, three from the hollow are still somewhere deep beneath the earth -- perhaps alive, most likely among the dead.

"It's just devastating," says Kathy Duncan, who runs a white clapboard convenience store with neither a sign nor a gas pump, just an ice chest by the front door and a notice that tells the locals it doubles as a game-checking station.

Early Thursday, rescue teams were given the chance to resume the search for four missing miners whose fates are unknown. Crews drilled holes deep into the mine to ventilate lethal carbon monoxide and highly explosive hydrogen and methane so rescuers could enter.

Friends and families cling to the hope that they made it to an airtight chamber stocked with food, water and breathable air that could sustain them and are not among the 14 confirmed dead whose bodies remain in the mine. Seven bodies were pulled out after the explosion, and two miners were hospitalized, one still in intensive care on Wednesday.

Duncan's suddenly absent customers are 51-year-old Ricky Workman of Colcord, single dad Greg Brock and married dad Ronald Maynor, both of Clear Creek.

"Nobody knows if they're among the 14 found or the four that are still missing," said Duncan.

A photo of Maynor hangs on the wall above the ice cream freezer. He is fresh-faced and grinning, wearing camouflage and holding the head of a freshly shot deer. Duncan saves dozens of photos when her customers bring in their kill.

She pulls out a zippered plastic bag, looking for images of Workman and Brock, but has none.

Kathy and her husband, Glen, open their store at 4 a.m. every day, serving breakfast to coal miners heading to work. The word of who was missing spread quickly after the blast.

"Some of them talked. Some of them cried. Some just didn't say anything," Duncan says. "You just make eye contact and you know what they're thinking and they know what you're thinking."

Brock, father to 12-year-old son Greg Jr., is a strict and attentive parent who regularly brings his son into the store for soda and pizza, says Glen Duncan. Divorced long ago, Brock has raised his son alone, relying on neighbors to baby-sit when he's underground.

"He's just a good, hardworking man and a good daddy," Glen Duncan says.

Brock raised his son to be polite and well-mannered.

"He took an interest in him," he said, often coming home from work to pick up his son for baseball and basketball games.

The Duncans' daughter, 29-year-old Nichole Howell, was in high school with Maynor and knows both him and his wife, Helen.

"He's one of the best people you could ever meet. You've never heard anyone say anything bad about him," Howell says, bursting into tears.

Maynor and his wife have two small children, one in the fourth grade and one about 2 years old. Helen Maynor has a MySpace page, Howell says, where she raves about her family and marrying her dream man.

"He and his wife are just so much in love."

[Associated Press; By VICKI SMITH]

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