Concerns are growing among anguished families that the bodies of those who died in the sinking of a South Korean ferry may never be found, as search teams suspended work on Saturday because of bad weather.
A looming storm and high tides put a temporary halt to operations to recover the remains of more than 100 people still missing over a week after the huge ferry capsized.
"Over the weekend, strong wind and rain is expected in the Jindo area", a coastguard spokesman told journalists.
"As efforts to find the missing people are becoming protracted, there are growing concerns among their families that bodies might be lost for good", he said.
The confirmed death toll stood Saturday at 187, with 115 unaccounted for -- many bodies are believed trapped in the ferry that capsized on April 16 with 476 people on board.
Making up the bulk of the passengers on the 6,825 tonne Sewol when it sank were 325 high school students -- around 250 of whom are either confirmed or presumed dead.
Although all hope of finding survivors has been extinguished, there is still anger and deep frustration among relatives of the missing over the pace of the recovery operation.
- Challenging conditions -
Frogmen have battled strong currents, poor visibility and blockages caused by floating furniture as they have tried to get inside the upturned vessel, which rests on a silty seabed.
The challenging conditions have meant divers are unable to spend more than a few minutes in the ship each time they go down.
Even so, they are coming across horrifying scenes in the murky water, including one dormitory room -- that would normally have held around 31 people -- packed with the bodies of 48 students wearing lifejackets.
Around a quarter of the 187 bodies recovered so far have been found in waters outside the sunken vessel, and there are fears that some of the missing may have drifted free from the wreck.
The gathering storm was intensifying worries that remains could be scattered when the sea is churned by strong winds.
Authorities -- wary of the palpable anger among relatives -- have mobilised eight trawlers and installed 13-kilometre (eight-mile)-long nets anchored to the seabed across the Maenggol sea channel to prevent the dead being swept into the open ocean.
Dozens of other vessels, including navy ships as well as helicopters, have also been scouring the site and beyond.
Three fisheries patrol vessels were being pressed into the search operation, expanding the hunt up to 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the scene of the disaster.
Police and local government officials will also be mobilised to scour coastal areas and nearby islands, a coastguard official said.
- Widening investigation -
Furious families demanded a meeting with Choi Sang-Hwan, deputy head of the Korea Coastguard, near the pier in Jindo Port, urging him to send the divers back into the water.
"We are waiting for the right moment as conditions in the sea are not favourable," said Choi.
Choi was physically attacked by angry parents on Thursday, a victim of the febrile atmosphere surrounding the tragedy, which has already seen multiple arrests and bitter recriminations.
It took divers working in difficult and dangerous conditions more than two days to get into the sunken ferry and two more days to retrieve the first bodies.
Many relatives believe some of the victims may have survived for several days in trapped air pockets, but perished in the cold water after no rescue came.
As a result some have asked for autopsies to be performed, to see if it would be possible to determine the precise cause and time of death.
The Sewol's captain, Lee Joon-Seok, and 10 crew members have been arrested on charges ranging from criminal negligence to abandoning passengers.
The captain has been particularly criticised for delaying the evacuation order until the ferry was listing so sharply that escape was almost impossible.
Divers battle darkness, fear to find bodies in sunken ferry
Divers grope their way slowly through the dark corridors and cabins of the sunken Sewol ferry. Bodies appear suddenly, floating by in the murky water, buoyed by life-jackets or the bloat of decomposition, their faces etched with fear or shock.
Some are still locked together in embraces, a freeze-frame of panic as the water rushed in and the ship sank. The hair of female corpses ripples in the current, framing pale faces.
At times, heavy sediment in the water can make flashlights useless and it is almost total darkness inside the South Korean ferry, which has flipped upside down on the seafloor. Divers must stretch their hands into the void to search for bodies. There's constant worry their lifeline to the surface, a 100-meter oxygen hose, will get snagged or cut as they swim deeper through the wreck's maze-like hallways.
For nearly a week now, dozens of divers have battled fast currents and cold waters — as well as exhaustion and fear — to pull out a steady stream of corpses. As they go deeper into what's become a huge underwater tomb, they're getting a glimpse of the ship's final moments April 16 before it capsized. More than 300 — most of them high school students — are feared dead.
"They can see the people's expressions at the instant" the ship sank, Hwang Dae-sik said of the team of 30 divers he supervises for the Marine Rescue and Salvage Association, a private group of professional divers who've joined Korean navy and coast guard divers in the search and rescue effort. "From the bodies' expressions, you can see they were facing danger and death."
Divers descend about 30 meters (100 feet) down and enter the ship through windows they've broken with hammers.
Han Yong Duk, a 33-year-old diver, said that visibility was often so poor that divers had to feel their way along the outside of the ship to find windows they could smash. One diver tried to hit the ferry with a hammer but only connected with steel, not glass.
Another civilian diver said that sometimes it was pitch black; other times there was less than 20 centimeters (a foot) of visibility.
"I got around by fumbling in the darkness to try to find things with my hands," said Cha Soon-cheol, who spent five days helping with searches. Swimming against the strong currents exhausted him.
Once inside the ship, divers have to dodge floating debris — passengers' belongings, cargo, ropes, chairs — but also bodies.
The ship turned upside down as it sank, so "just imagine a room that is flipped," said Hwang, who doesn't participate in dives himself but is closely involved in every other part of the operation. "Everything is floating around, and it's hard to know exactly where they are."
It is a delicate operation. Divers must move quickly to find decomposing corpses, but they must also be cautious to protect themselves from injury and keep their air supply hoses from getting cut off. The divers can often work for about an hour when they're hooked up to the hoses, Hwang said.
Some divers use oxygen tanks, but that typically allows for only about 20 minutes under water.
As they explore the hallways of the ship, bodies in lifejackets often float above them, near what used to be the floor, and divers must reach up to grab the bodies and pull them close so they can hold them while notifying colleagues above. They then carefully push the body through an open window cleared of broken glass and debris and let it float up to the boats.
Hwang says divers take special care with decaying bodies to make sure they don't damage them further. When a body without a life jacket is found one diver wraps his arms around the body and another diver pulls his colleague and the body to the surface with a rope.
The work is dangerous.
Air supply problems recently forced two members of Hwang's team to make risky, rapid ascents from about 30 meters (120 meters) underwater to the surface. Rising too quickly puts divers at risk of decompression sickness, also known as the bends, which in severe cases can be fatal. The two divers, he said, were treated in decompression chambers. They're now resting, with one suffering from back pain.
It's also emotionally exhausting, and divers often find themselves thinking of the lives lost.
Hwang said his divers try to avoid looking at the eyes of the bodies they retrieve to minimize the shock. It's not always possible. "Even though they have a lot of diving experience, they get really frightened when they first face the bodies," he said.
Many of the students are found hugging each other.
"How hard it must have been for the kids, with the cold water rushing in and darkness coming over them," Hwang said. "Yesterday, I had a lump in my throat talking about this. I thought to myself: Why did I tell them that I can help with rescues and have a lot of experience when I can't even save one life here?"
Saturday 26 April 2014
http://news.yahoo.com/body-recovery-sunken-korean-ferry-suspended-053924986.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/25/sewol-ferry-south-korea/8148419/
