An Audible Original by Jessica Blank, Erik Jensen, and music by Steve Earle
Here’s the description of Coal Country listed on Amazon.
Portions of this audiobook contain mature language and themes. Listener discretion is advised.
In 2010, the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia killed 29 men and tore a hole in the lives of countless others. Now you can hear the first-person accounts from survivors and family members. In this riveting, emotionally stunning new work, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, award-winning writers of The Exonerated, and three-time Grammy Award-winning country/folk legend Steve Earle dig deep into the repercussions of the most deadly mining disaster in recent US history.
©2021 Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (P)2021 AO Media LLC
Coal Country is a true story. I know this because I lived it. I remember when Jessica and her husband Erik came to our house with Kelsey Stokes, to interview us. They set up in our living room, then told us to begin by introducing ourselves. For several hours, we talked about that day and relived the worst moments of our lives. They recorded every word and used those words to write a play. Each word said by the actors are our words exactly. The words heard in Coal Country are of each person they interviewed or taken from trial transcripts.
Four years later, we got an invite to watch the play in NYC. We knew it would be hard to watch, but we wanted to see it. While we were right, it was like going back in time, the play was spectacular. What we didn’t count on, was the friendships and bonds we created with not only the other families, but the writers, with Steve, the cast, and crew.
If you aren’t familiar with the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine explosion, I’ll give you a brief summary. On April 5, 2010, the day after Easter, the evening shift at UBB was just beginning. The Long Wall, the largest part of the mining operation, had been plagued with all sorts of issues, so it had been shut down most of the day. It was working at the time of shift change at 3:00pm. For those who don’t know, in a coal mine, one shift doesn’t leave until their relief shows up on the face (work area).
My husband, Goose, was on the mantrip waiting with seven men on his section, for someone who had forgotten their cap light. He and his crew mined in an area deeper underground than the Long Wall section, called Head Gate 22. This would be the area the Long Wall would be moved to at a later date. Of course, that never happened.
At 3:02pm, he felt a breeze coming from inside the mine. Within moments the wind began to pick up and to him, it felt like hurricane-force winds. Goose jumped from the mantrip and began to make his way to the portal (mine opening) 300 feet away. He didn’t think he’d make it because the wind was so strong, he thought it would pick him up and toss him against the rib (mine wall).
At the tail end of a large Long Wall operation, a spark ignited a deadly methane gas buildup which formed a huge fireball. Fireballs happen at times and should have stayed behind the machinery – if ventilation had been sufficient and rock dust (white inert powder made from crushed rocks) would have been placed on the walls of the mine, dampening the amount of floating coal dust. Coal dust is more explosive than dynamite.
But the ventilation wasn’t working, allowing the methane to build up. The water spray on the sharp miner bits that dig into the coal that kept sparks from occurring, weren’t working. The rock dust wasn’t applied to the mine walls, allowing coal dust to build up in the mine. In essence, the perfect storm for an atomic-size explosion was in place.
At about 3:02, the Long Wall machine sparked, creating a fireball from the methane which in turn ignited the coal dust floating throughout the mine. Once the traveling explosion blasted through the Long Wall section, it travelled down other corridors picking up intensity. When the force of the explosion would reach the end of the long “hallway” it would bounce off the back wall like a ping-pong ball contacting with a paddle and grow exponentially stronger, then explode back down the way it had come.
Once the coal dust was completely incinerated, the fireball died. Of course, it sucked the air from the mine, released deadly gasses, and caused dust, dirt and loose items to become missiles being shot through the underground maze of coal. It was so forceful, it took rails (as in railroad rails) and heavy machinery weighing tons, and twisted them. Can you imagine what it did to humans?
I’m one of the fortunate few who’s loved one came home. He was changed forever, as was I, but we get to live our lives. Granted we still suffer from the trauma of that day, and it took years of medication and therapy to make it to this point. Him with the memories and futile efforts to save those first seven men that were brought out. Of knowing what happened to his friends, some of which he’d known and worked with for 30 years. He still has horrible nightmares that I have to wake him from.
I live with the fear and trauma of not knowing if my husband was alive. The time spent waiting by the phone, afraid to hear it ring. I was even told by someone that Goose was one of the dead. I remember sitting on my porch, shaking so hard that I was sore for days. I remember the moment that I left my body for a split second. That’s where my PTSD first occurred. I still suffer panic attacks. We both still feel the grief. I still wake up at night and check to make sure he’s breathing. I’m that afraid of losing him.
Coal Country looks at the lives of some of the survivors (me and my husband) and family of some of those that died. It’s heart wrenching. It’s soul altering. But it’s a small piece of what we lived through. But it also is something I think you need to hear.
Immediately upon opening, the critics applauded Coal Country. It was sold out at every performance, and I know from experience, the audience hung on every word. They laughed and cried, gasped and raged at the sad but true ending. They lived it with us thanks to Jessica’s and Erik’s direction and Steve’s amazing music.
Unfortunately, the play was a casualty of the Coronavirus pandemic. Not long after opening at the Public Theater, Broadway and all of New York went on lockdown. Luckily, Jessica, Erik, Steve and the cast created this amazing Audiobook of the play. If it ever makes it back to stage, and you get the chance to see it, I urge you to do so.
I don’t usually like to post pictures of myself, but I’m making an exception here.
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