GILLETEE, Wyo. - All workers have been accounted for hours after a tornado touched down at North Antelope Rochelle Mine, knocked 12 empty train cars over and injured at least eight people as a line of storms passed early Friday evening through Campbell County.
The tornado hit during shift change at the massive open-pit coal mine and flipped over multiple buses that were there to transport workers, said Leslie Perkins, Campbell County public information officer, although it's unclear if anyone was on the buses at the time.
Eight people have been hurt in the incident but none of the injuries appear life-threatening, Perkins said.
Six people were taken by ambulance to Gillette for treatment, one was taken by ambulance to Douglas and another refused treatment.
The mine has "100%" of its affected workforce accounted for and there have been no deaths or people confirmed as missing, Perkins said.
“At least one train was blown over,” during the incident and numerous agencies responded, said David King, Campbell County emergency management coordinator, shortly after the response began.
Emergency services worked with mine management on accounting for employees and power and gas to the mine was shut down.
King told the Gillette News Record shortly after 7 p.m. that it was unclear if anyone was hurt. It was said on the dispatch scanner at 7:30 p.m. that five "patients" were being transported from the mine and more were "trickling in."
Ambulances from Campbell and Converse counties and more agencies responded to the site of the incident. An air ambulance waited on standby but was not used to transport any patients, Perkins said.
The Campbell County Fire Department was dispatched at about 6:07 p.m. for the report of tornado that touched down at the mine located more than 60 miles south of Gillette and more than 20 miles south of Wright.
The Sheriff's Office sent several deputies and nine members of the Sheriff's posse down to the mine. The posse members were sent to assist the mine's search and rescue team, said Undersheriff Quentin Reynolds.
Deputies positioned at the guard's post helping account for anyone who entered or exited the mine, Reynolds said.
Perkins said the mine had set up a call tree to try accounting for all of its employees.
The tornado touched down at North Antelope Rochelle Mine at about 6 p.m. and was part of the same storm complex that brought tornadoes in Natrona and Johnson counties before crossing into Campbell County, said Melissa Smith, a meteorologist and hydrologist with the National Weather Service office in Rapid City, South Dakota.
“There were some tornadoes reported there,” Smith said of Natrona and Johnson counties. “The tornadoes would form, come down, stay on the ground and come back up.”
The strength of the tornado won’t be known until a damage survey is taken which would be sometime later this weekend at the soonest.
A 83 mph wind gust was reported at the Rochelle remote automated weather station at the Campbell and Weston county line at about 6:40 p.m. The tornado appears to have dropped north of that station, Smith said.
There were no other tornadoes reported in Campbell County.
As of 9:45 p.m. there were 10 fire department units, six Sheriff's deputies and three ambulances on scene.
Mine workers have been driven to Gillette with help from Campbell County School District buses and arrangements are being made to get workers from Douglas and Casper back to those towns.
A dedicated "family reunification center where employers and families can seek information and support" was established on the fifth floor classroom of Campbell County Memorial Hospital.
All families have been connected with patients taken to and treated at the hospital, according to a CCH press release.
Peabody officials are expected to release more information Saturday about damage to the mine.
(Republished with permission of the Gillette News Record)
