Mining Disaster: This AP report in The New York Times makes things look a little worse for International Coal Group (see post immediately below this one), which appears to have handled a difficult situation badly, and its aftermath too.

It now seems that the company was aware that relatives were celebrating the (inaccurate) news that their loved ones had survived, and did nothing to correct the misinformation, at least for several hours. The article quotes the CEO, Ben Hatfield: ''Let's put this in perspective. Who do I tell not to celebrate? I didn't know if there were 12 or 1 (who were alive).'' I'm not suggesting that Hatfield needed to get that specific, but he might have warned the families as a group that their joy was premature.

Then there's this quote from the son of one of the dead miners: ''There was no apology. There was no nothing. It was immediately out the door."

Again, emotions run high during an incident like this one and people are looking for someone to blame. I have no way of knowing whether the company's announcement was sufficient in either content or tone. But this has the potential to turn into a major crisis, and lawsuits seem almost inevitable. The worst thing the company could do now is listen to lawyers advising "no comment," because it needs to get control of the reputation crisis before thinking about the legal problem.