Page 2 - Pumping Operation News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Levels down by millions of gallons. rescue efforts could be further compounded by heavy monsoons in the forecast for sunday. bill neely, nbc chief global correspondent is in chiang rai, thailand for more on the desperate situation. bill, i know you're at the entrance to this cave in the middle of the night there. what is the hope of finding an exit strategy? >> reporter: well, it's a very timely question, andrea, because literally in the last few minutes the commander of the rescue operation, who is also the governor of the province, has just given an impromptu news conference. he's saying the...

Feet at a time and measure and 20 feet and measure. we also have the second relief well standing by if we need it. i have a lot of confidence we're going to intercept that well and be able to see if we need to do any sort of pumping operation once we do that. so i do have a lot of confidence we'll be successful. >> we have time for one more question. go right ahead. >> can you tell me why is it working here and there doesn't seem to be oil and up the road -- >> well, i didn't go to myrtle grove today. we have something like 150 people over there today and we have 20-some odd vessels over there...

Any sort of pumping operation once we do that. so i do have a lot of confidence we'll be successful. >> we have time for one more question. go right ahead. >> i didn't go to myrtle grove today. i checked and asked how many people are working there. we have something like 150 people over there today and 20 some odd vessels working out there today. what we actually do and in fact, i just met with the team inside the building here. we have reconnaissance activity. we have a situation unit. we have a planning team and these people actually look and see what we observe every day and dispatch our re...

This, but there now appears to be little choice. >> bill, i have another question i want to get to you. >> yeah. >> we have a minute or two more, but i want to get a sense from the water that i see there. there's so much water in these caves and these crews have been able to pump out as substantial amount of water. how important will that be when it comes to pulling these children out the fact that the water levels have dropped? and getting them out before the rains come in? >> yeah, i mean, i've no detailed information about the water levels in there at the moment. but certainly the pumping o...