SPECIAL REPORT | FULL COVERAGE

Martin Dougherty: 'There's a lot of hope here'

SOMERSET, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- As crews work to save nine miners trapped in a Pennsylvania coal mine since Wednesday, authorities were keeping most of the news media away from the site of the rescue operation, where the noise from giant drills digging into earth and rock is affecting the search for signs of life from the miners.

CNN photographer Martin Dougherty was one of the few members of the media allowed on site. He filed this report:

DOUGHERTY: Both rescue mine shafts are being drilled feverishly. It's a very mechanical process and they can only go as fast as the drills go. Everybody's on standby here ready to jump in for the rescue.

Last we heard is that they can't do the seismic tests to seek out signs of life because there's too much vibration going on here and they can't get a reading.

I did see someone with some equipment that looked like seismic equipment but I couldn't tell if he was taking readings or not. It's very noisy here.

They're hoping for a breakthrough around 2 or 3 o'clock. But that's speculation. We did see earlier some practicing in the rescue basket. It's like a tube that they lower down once they penetrate to where they believe the miners are.

Everybody seems optimistic. They have Medstar helicopters here and mine rescue teams. They're ready. There's a lot of hope here.