Page 21 - Cave System News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Downpours could occur. ryan you could have some locations that pick up four, even 6 inches of rain in the next five days. >> excellent illustration as to why these next few hours are so important. al allison chinchar, thank you for that report. we wanted to get a sense of exactly what they're up against. gary tuchman went with a group of u.s. cave drivers for an upclose look at the stretchries conditions. he went to logan canyon in utah, and similar to the safe similar to where the thai soccer team is trapped. >> reporter: i walk in cold water with the trainer of the utah department of publi...

Divers inside the cave this morning. they're racing the weather right now and here is why. monsoon rains are headed toward the town and threaten the flood the cave even more. >> cnn's david mckenzie is live in thailand right now. david, explain to us why these new images coming out today are so significant to the rescue. >> reporter: diane and victor, these are significant because those men in that chamber, that's the staging ground deep inside the cave system, kind of halfway between the entrance of the cave and those boys trapped inside. it was much more flooded with water just a few days ag...

I know that they say there may be some rescue operations soon. do we have any idea what soon might mean? >> reporter: well, soon could be the coming hours. it could be a day. we to know that preparations are being made in earnest. we have seen a lot more activity here where i'm standing near the cave site where these boys have been trapped around a mile or more inside that cave for 15 days now. pretty extraordinary, this rescue. they have called it a rescue that no other has ever been attempted like this. just to give you an indication, the thai royal navy divers are obviously leading this ope...

They talk about wanting to get out quickly. and going back to your question, alex, they do have some reason to be worried. first of all, the falling oxygen levels. why is that critical? if you think of altitude sickness, being on a high mountain, thin oxygen, that's what those children are suffering, some of them, at the moment. the oxygen levels are falling to a critical degree, and the governor says he's really worried about that. secondly, there is the possibility of torrential rains that could flood the caves and undo all the water pumping, millions of gallons that have been pumped out of ...

Which are effectively walkable. it doesn't mean it's easy, but it is walkable. it's still slippery. they're scaling boulders, and there are still a lot of places where you can slip or get hurt. but there are -- and there are these other sections where they feel the boys could float. but there's still these tight twisting passageways that they haven't been able to drain to the point where they feel more comfortable, where they feel they have been able to reduce the risk. this is where they seem to be hung up on things. the issue of course, richard, and why they're looking at trying to expedite ...