“God gives a home to the forsaken; he leads forth prisoners to prosperity,” the psalmist says this Sunday. Thirty-three Chilean miners trapped deep underground August 5 are holding onto hope for their eventual deliverance. Drilling an escape tunnel wide enough to release them may take as long as 3 or 4 months.

For the miners’ loved ones, many of whom are camping in a makeshift tent city outside the mine, the news on Sunday that all 33 miners had somehow survived a mine cave-in on August 5 was nothing short of a miracle.

The psalmist describes the rejoicing of the just this Sunday, and once the miners were reconnected to the outside world they used a modified telephone to sing Chile’s national anthem to the hundreds of teary-eyed relatives celebrating above. In Santiago, the capital, motorists honked their car horns and people cheered wildly on subway platforms.

Before they were found, the miners had been surviving on two spoonfuls of tuna, a cup of milk, one cracker, and a bit of a peach topping eaten every two days, family members said.

Psychologists are now preparing family members to speak to the miners for the first time, cautioning them not to become too emotional or mention the estimated timetable for the rescue, which government officials still hold out hopes can be reduced to as little as a month.

In another week the men will have been trapped underground longer than any other miners in history. Last year three miners survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China. Few other rescues have taken more than two weeks.

Doctors warned the real challenge would be for the miners to maintain a healthy state of mind during the long period it could take to build an underground escape tunnel. Games and pasttimes were being organized to keep the men occupied and upbeat.

Antenor Barrios cooked on a small grill for the three families he shares a tent with. His son Carlos, 27, is among the miners. “This was more than a miracle,” said Barrios, 48, of the news that the miners had been found alive. “It’s like being reborn again.” A note brought up from one of the miners said: “I want to tell everyone that I’m good and we’ll surely come out OK. Patience and faith. God is great and the help of my God is going to make it possible to leave this mine alive.”

Source: Articles by Gideon Long for the Miami Herald, Federico Quilodran for the Associated Press, Andrew Hough for Telegraph.co.uk, and Alexi Barrionuevo for the New York Times