One year anniversary of mine accident greeted with many unresol

SOMERSET, Pa. -- A year after the triumphant rescue of nine men from the flooded Quecreek Mine, many of those involved still get choked up thinking about it.

"Watching the miners come up was much like watching our kids being born," said former Gov. Mark Schweiker. An anniversary celebration this week will include a Sunday prayer service and the crowning of "Miss Miracle Miner."

But amid the warm memories, some of the shine has worn off the miracle.

Several of the miners suffer from anxiety and depression. Six have filed lawsuits, and a central figure in the rescue effort committed suicide last month. Investigations into what went wrong at the mine remain secret.

And people in this rural area 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh wonder when the attention will finally stop.

"It's been a year," said Doug Custer, who escaped from the mine ahead of the flood. "It's time to get on with your life."

That may be easier said than done for the nine men who spent 77 hours trapped underground, sharing a single sandwich, writing farewell notes to their families and tying themselves together so all of their bodies would be found if they drowned.

Seven are still on medication, said their attorney, Howard Messer. Only two -- Randy Fogle and Mark Popernack -- have returned to work.

"You go through this nightmare," said Messer. "It's like being caught in an endless Freddy Krueger movie."

Fogle, Popernack, John Phillippi, Dennis Hall, Ronald Hileman, John Unger, Robert Pugh, Blaine Mayhugh and Thomas Foy were trapped July 24, 2002, when they breached a rock wall that separated their shaft from an abandoned mine. They had thought the other mine was 300 feet away.

The Quecreek Mine was flooded by more than 50 million gallons of water that had collected in the other mine.

Rescuers rushed to drill a man-sized hole to the spot where they believed the miners were, while pumping breathable air through a smaller hole.

On the night of July 27, the drill reached the chamber where the men had been huddling in the dark, and the men were pulled up a narrow shaft in a yellow cage, one by one, in a rescue that transfixed the nation.

In November, investigators issued a preliminary report blaming an inaccurate map of the neighboring mine and wondering why a later map, which did show mining in the area where the breakthrough occurred, hadn't been available. The final report hasn't been released while a grand jury investigates.