When an explosion shook Tallmansville, W.Va., around 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 2, families of 13 men—trapped in the Sago mine—gathered in the local Baptist church seeking information and solace. As the hours passed, they picked at potluck dishes and dozed in pews, trying to bolster one another's spirits while they awaited word from the five-man rescue crews. At the 38th hour, terrible news: a body had been found. Among the grim families, bitter feelings emerged. Recalling that her brother-in-law Randal McCloy, 27, became a miner two years ago so that his wife, Anna, 25, could stay home with their two young children, Tina Green, 40, says, “Anna said that lately he had some concerns about the safety of the mine.”

Then, just shy of midnight, the families thought their prayers had been answered: From the mine came word that the men had been found—alive. As church bells chimed and ambulances raced toward the mine, ecstatic relatives gripped each other, sobbing in joy as they yelled, “They're alive!”

But, in an unbelievable turn of events, their hopes were dashed three hours later. It turned out that a miscommunication between rescue workers and the command center had yielded false reports of 12 survivors. In fact, only one of the miners had survived—McCloy, who at press time was on a ventilator at a trauma center in Morgantown. As the families plunged from joy into anger, Ben Hatfield, president of International Coal Group Inc., tried to explain what had happened. “This,” he said of the deaths, “is certainly not the outcome that we hoped and prayed for.”

Get up-to-the-minute celebrity news and photos on your cellphone, iPhone or Blackberry at www.people.com!