The Massey mine disaster: One family's struggle to move on

After a mine disaster took their son, says Stephanie McCrummen, the Quarleses got a big check from the company. But that did little to temper their grief

Gary Quarles
(Image credit: Washington Post/Sarah L. Voisin)

GARY QUARLES SAT on the front porch of his trailer in Horse Creek Hollow, W.Va., where he and his wife have lived for more than 30 years. The trailer had new paint. Two new white trucks were in the gravel driveway. Another trailer 40 feet away, where his only son once lived, had a new roof and new furniture, although no one lives there now. Gary Wayne Quarles, 33, was one of 29 workers killed on April 5, 2010, in the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in four decades.

Massey Energy, which owned the mine, offered settlements to the families. Gary and his wife, Patty, called the $3 million offer a "slap in the face." So they got a lawyer. Other families got lawyers. Earlier this year, the last of the wrongful-death claims filed by the families against Massey and inherited by the company that bought it, Alpha Natural Resources, came down to four days of mediation.

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