WINDOW TO THE SOUL: A community's support for the 29 miners and contractors trapped in the Pike River mine is summed up by a sign in a Greymouth shop.

If there are angels in the rugged hills on the West Coast it is time for them to front.

We need a miracle.

Still, 29 sons of the Coast are deep in the Pike River mine - five days on.

Can they still be alive?

Are they huddled somewhere waiting for rescue, or lying injured?

The candle of hope burns on but the flame is wavering. There is increased desperation in the air.

The way people talk about this wretched situation in hushed tones, among friends or over talk-back radio, is not the same as when this started.

With so much doubt it is easy for hope to turn to despair.

Not a lot happened yesterday to make anyone feel much better.

Grieving families came together because that is what we do - there is strength in numbers. And they gather to sate the thirst for information.

Much of it is repetitive. Much of it is technical. Much of it is of no great significance. A great wad of it is frightening.

And yesterday they ventured into new, more frightening territory. Families were shown a video of the shockwave that comes with a methane gas-fuelled explosion.

The clip ran for 52 seconds. There was no sound. The blast started by gently moving a rag hanging in a mine portal. It climbed in intensity. The air filled with the stone dust miners scatter to limit the risk of explosions. This was the blast that threw two men to the ground but allowed them to scramble together to safety. All now want to believe there are 29 others who weathered the same brute force, and are sheltered somewhere safe.

It is not entirely clear why such a dramatic clip was played to the distraught families.

One suggestion is that it was to inspire continued hope - if two can survive a blast of this magnitude, surely many more can.

But there is that other message, the message that dominates: this mine is a time-bomb - a second explosion could erupt at any time.

This is the message the families, the community, receive one day after another.

So what is there hope for?

A miracle, says Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn.

He, like so many, is starting to feel the weight of time and absence of answers.

Rescue. Recovery. Two words that demand careful allocation.

Kokshoorn will not accept that this is a recovery situation.

There was more, much more, technical information yesterday as well. Further insight into mine drawings that suggest there are coves of refuge below ground - and the boys may be in them.

But we know one such space is empty.

A camera was lowered down a shaft - a peep hole to a layby that a man or men could run to to escape a fire. They would have access to fresh air and time to be rescued.

The layby has been damaged by the explosion we saw yesterday. The hope is that there are other places in this maze of mine workings that might offer shelter.

There might be air from the compressed air hose that continues to pump. There would be water.

Mine management now know much more about what happened below ground at shift change on Friday afternoon. But maybe it is a good thing they have nowhere in the mine the explosion ignited.

That gives us hope and allows us to think about miracles.

The language of officials yesterday was guarded. They were careful what they said and all agreed the odds against survival are mounting.

Overnight, they were to continue drilling to draw vital information.

They will use hi-tech devices to listen for the faintest of sounds.

And, today they will have to find new ways to convince distraught families there is still reason for hope and to hang in there.

All can see, achieving this gets harder by the day.

Where will this nightmare end?