Amid jubilation, 4 more boys rescued from flooded Thai cave

The generals and other officials overseeing the desperate operation to rescue 12 young soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave labyrinth in Thailand's sweltering far north were only half joking when they quipped Monday that success was in the hands of the rain god Phra Pirun.

They were celebrating a second day of stunning triumph after divers guided four more boys Monday through tight passages and dank flooded caverns to safety. "Two days, eight Boars," read a Facebook post by the Thai Navy SEALS of the dramatic rescue that began Sunday, more than two weeks after the members of the Wild Boars soccer team were trapped. Another five still await rescue, including the team's 25-year-old coach.

The eight rescued boys were recuperating in a hospital from their ordeal huddled together on a tiny patch of higher ground where they had sought refuge after a rainstorm flooded the massive Tham Luan Nang Non cave complex as they were exploring it after soccer practice on June 23. Their families were being kept at a distance because of fears of infection and the emaciated-looking boys were eating a rice-based porridge because they were still too weak to take regular food, authorities said.

An ambulance allegedly carrying one of the rescued boys head to the hospital in Chiang Rai city as divers evacuated some of the 12 boys and their coach trapped at the Tham Luang cave in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, Monday, July 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Officials lavished praise on the Thai and international divers who, in pairs of two, executed the dangerous rescue mission, guiding the boys, who could barely swim and had no diving experience, through a treacherous 4-kilometer-long (2 1/2-mile) escape route that twisted and turned through the cavern. Highlighting the extreme dangers, a former Thai Navy SEAL died Friday while replenishing the oxygen canisters laid along the route to the boys' damp refuge.

But the chances of monsoon rains sending torrents of water into the cave and making the rescue effort too risky is never far from the minds of everyone involved in the operation.

Alluding to that worry, the regional army commander offered his thanks Monday to the rain god Phra Pirun, imploring him to "keep showing us mercy."

"Give us three more days and the Boars will come out to see the world, every one of them," Maj-Gen. Bancha Duriyapan told a news conference punctuated by applause from the dozens of Thai and foreign journalists and others in attendance.

"I beg Phra Pirun because the Meteorological Department said that from Monday on there will be continuous rain," Bancha said. "If I ask too much, he might not provide it. So I've been asking for three days."

The plight of the boys, aged 11-16, and their coach, has riveted Thailand and much of the world — from the heart-sinking news they were trapped to the first flickering video of the huddle of anxious yet smiling boys brought back by the pair of British divers who found them after penetrating deep into the sprawling cave.

Indian students pray for boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, at a school in Ahmadabad, India, Monday, July 9, 2018. Two more ambulances have left the site of a flooded cave in northern Thailand where young members of a soccer team and their 25-year-old coach have been trapped for more than two weeks. Banners in the local language read "Oh God save the lives of children". (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Then came the letters carried out by the teams of divers who took oxygen, food and medicine to the boys' refuge as experts pondered whether to dive them out or provision them for months while the monsoon season continues until at least late October.

Writing in elegant Thai script, the boys urged their parents not to worry, adding that they hoped they wouldn't get too much homework after being rescued and couldn't wait to eat their favorite foods again.

Their friends were full of optimism — and worry.

Phuwadech Kamnguen, a 14-year-old best friend of one of the trapped boys, said he's looking forward to eating KFC with the team again.

"Even when my friends have left the cave, I'm worried about their physical well-being. From what I've seen in the clip, they did look skinny," he said.

This frame grab from video tweeted by Elon Musk shows a "tiny kid-sized submarine" being tested in a pool at Palisades Charter High School, Sunday, July 8, 2018, in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Musk's Space X rocket company tested the submarine that could potentially help rescue the remaining children and their coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. (Courtesy of Elon Musk via AP)

The boys' nightmare experience — trapped in claustrophobic darkness by rising waters — resonated across the globe, riveting people both in Thailand and internationally who anxiously watched the news coming from this town along the border with Myanmar. After Monday's rescues, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited the eight freed boys in the hospital where they had been taken by helicopter.

Chiang Rai province's acting governor, Narongsak Osatanakorn, who is in charge of the rescue, voiced confidence Monday in the ongoing operation, provided the weather doesn't take a turn for the worse.

Workers have been laboring around the clock to pump water out of the cave, and officials said Monday that despite heavy downpours overnight, water levels inside the cave did not rise. More worrying, however, oxygen levels in the chamber where the boys sought refuge were falling.

Narongsak said Monday's rescues involving 18 divers and a support team of 100 had taken nine hours, two fewer than the rescues on Sunday.

"We have more expertise than yesterday," he said.

That sense of accomplishment was also reflected in the message posted Monday night on the Thai Navy SEALS's Facebook page announcing the latest rescues. It ended with their fighting cheer, adopted from the U.S. Navy: "Hooyah!"

People check their mobile phones for update while waiting at a military airbase during emergency helicopter evacuation in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, Monday, July 9, 2018. Four more of the boys trapped for over two weeks in a flooded cave in northern Thailand were brought out on Monday, an official said, bringing to eight the number extracted in a high-stakes rescue operation. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

But bringing out the remaining four boys and their coach could take more than one operation, Narongsak warned.

All preparations, including replacing the oxygen cylinders positioned along the route out in the cave, take at least 20 hours, he said. The safety of the divers, who have meticulously planned the mission, is also paramount.

"If Phra Pirun helps us, we might be able to do it very quickly," Narongsak said, again invoking the god of rain, who is widely revered in Thailand. "But if Phra Pirun doesn't help, then it might be a little late."

A Thai well wisher puts a poster to pray for boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand Monday, July 9, 2018. Expert divers Sunday rescued four of 12 boys from a flooded cave in northern Thailand, as a dangerous and complicated operation unfolded amid heavy rain and the threat of rising water underground. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A Thai well wisher put poster to pray for boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand Monday, July 9, 2018. Expert divers Sunday rescued four of 12 boys from a flooded cave in northern Thailand, as a dangerous and complicated operation unfolded amid heavy rain and the threat of rising water underground. The poster reads " Take Wild Boars back home." (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Indian students hold candles and pray for boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, at a school in Ahmadabad, India, Monday, July 9, 2018. Two more ambulances have left the site of a flooded cave in northern Thailand where young members of a soccer team and their 25-year-old coach have been trapped for more than two weeks. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Indian students hold candles and pray for boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, at a school in Ahmadabad, India, Monday, July 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A helicopter waits near the cave for more evacuations of the boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped since June 23, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand Monday, July 9, 2018. Thailand's interior minister says the same divers who took part in Sunday's rescue of four boys trapped in a flooded cave will also conduct the next operation as they know the cave conditions and what to do. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Flash flooding caused by relentless heavy rains that soaked western Pennsylvania spurred numerous rescues and evacuations in the region, but no injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service said nearly 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain fell in a short time late Thursday afternoon and evening in parts of Allegheny County. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that some southern sections of the county got more than 4 inches as they got stuck under heavier bands within the storm system.

Rescue crews in the Pittsburgh suburb of Oakdale used watercraft to evacuate or rescue some residents, while officials in nearby Etna issued an emergency evacuation notice as Pine Creek breeched its banks at over 14 feet (4.3 meters).

For the second time in a week, flood warnings were issued in West Virginia along the Ohio River, which was forecast to crest in the Pittsburgh area at above 25 feet late Friday into Saturday — well into flood stage. The river was at nearly 22 feet late Friday morning, a rapid rise from about 16.5 feet on Thursday morning, before the heavy rains moved into the region.

In Parkersburg, a portion of a loose barge struck a CSX railroad trestle spanning the swollen Little Kanawha River. Video from WTAP-TV showed the barge made contact with the trestle Friday morning as a train was moving across it before a towboat brought the barge until control. CSX was inspecting the trestle for structural damage. The Little Kanawha flows into the Ohio River.

Parts of New England were also dealing with flooding as more rain came early Friday. Strong winds were also possible throughout the region for most of the day.

Flood warnings were also in effect in several towns south of Hartford along the Connecticut River, which was expected to swell above 8 feet (2.4 meters), a foot above flood stage. The weather service advised boaters to be prepared for a period of swift river flows.

In West Virginia, roads in at least 20 counties remained impassable Friday due to flooding from heavy rains Thursday night, according to the state Department of Transportation. Crews had to clear storm drains by hand that were overwhelmed by runoff on one section of Interstate 64 in Charleston.

In Michigan, Consumers Energy reported about 67,000 customers without power in the western part of the state Friday night due to high winds. Meanwhile, thousands of residents in southeastern New York who lost power when severe storms moved through the region late Thursday had been restored by late Friday afternoon. But roughly 7,600 outages were still reported in Pennsylvania and another 5,000 outages in Maine and New Hampshire, according to poweroutage.us.

The severe weather came after other storms socked the Southeast this week, prompting a few tornado warnings and causing flash flooding and at least one death.

An EF-1 tornado struck in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Thursday night, damaging and knocking down trees, including one that fell on a house, the weather service’s Blacksburg, Virginia, office confirmed in a statement Friday.

The tornado with estimated peak winds of 105 to 110 mph (169 to 177 kph) touched down around 6:45 p.m. and its path was about 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) long and 300 yards (274.32 meters) wide, the weather service said. No deaths or injuries were reported.

A pickup drives into flooded Smith Creek Road while heading toward Tornado, after record rainfall on Thursday in Kanawha County, on April 12, 2024. (Kenny Kemp/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)

A recreational camper sits on its side in a creek near the town of Tornado, W. Va., on Friday, April 12, 2024, after record rainfall on Thursday. (Kenny Kemp/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)

The intersection at Dewey and Martha Streets in Etna, Pa. near Pittsburgh, is closed, Friday, April 12, 2024 after high water rolled over a creek Thursday night in a flash flood. (Mary Ann Thomas/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

In this image provided by Pittsburgh Public Safety, Pittsburgh area water rescue team rescued a woman trapped in a car sinking in rising waters along a section of Route 51 east of the city Thursday night, April 11, 2024, in Pittsburg. Flash flooding caused by relentless heavy rains that soaked western Pennsylvania spurred numerous rescues and evacuations in the region, but no injuries were reported. (Pittsburgh Public Safety via AP)