Chile mine rescue

Cheers erupted across Chile and around the globe Tuesday night as the first of 33 trapped miners emerged from the subterranean hell they've endured for more than two months.

Smiling through a clear oxygen mask, a healthy-looking Florencio Alvalos, 31, stepped out of a torpedo-shaped capsule that lifted him over 2,000 feet to the surface.

Alvalos, wearing moisture-resistent green coveralls and sunglasses to protect his eyes, was immediately embraced by a throng of jubilant rescuers and a beaming Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.

His tearful wife and one of his sons, both wearing hard hats, hugged and kissed him as he breathed the frigid, but fresh air of freedom for the first time in 69 days.

He was immediately rushed into a nearby medical center to be examined.

"Tonight, the world watches not a tragedy, but a celebration," Pinera said.

The heroic operation was broadcast live around the world, leaving viewers thrilled and hundreds dancing in the streets of Chilean towns.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the brave miners, their families, and the men and women who have been working so hard to rescue them," said President Obama

"While that rescue is far from over and difficult work remains, we pray that by God's grace, the miners will be able to emerge safely and return to their families soon."

Rescue worker Manuel Gonzalez reached the miners at 10:35 p.m. Dramatic live video taken from the chamber showed him receiving hugs from the trapped men who welcomed him to what has been their home away from home.

Within 15 minutes, Alvalos was on his way to the surface. It took about 16 heart-stopping minutes for him to reach the top.

At Pomaire on Restaurant Row near Times Square, said to be one of the only Chilean eateries in town, Chilean expats crammed into the dining room to cheer ecstatically as the first rescue unfolded.

Bartenders wore yellow hardhats and a handmade sign out front said "God bless them all."

"I've been very very worried about this. And now I'm so happy," said Rossana Spirito of Spanish Harlem, who came with her sister, best friend and mom to share the joy with other Chileans.

Alvalos was to be followed to freedom by Mario Sepulveda, 39, the only Bolivian in the group, Chilean officials said.

The Chileans made it clear that the last miner out would be 54-year-old Luis Urzua. He was the shift chief when an explosion caused the mine collapse on Aug. 5 - and is credited with keeping his men in line amid the darkness and despair.

Urzua, in a telephone interview with The Guardian of London newspaper earlier yesterday, conceded, "This was a group with different personalities and manners of being.

"We had to be strong," he said. "I hope to never live again like this, but that's the life of a miner."

Urzua kept his colleagues alive until food could be sent down by doling out to each miner just a spoonful of tuna every 48 hours. He said that before he goes up, he'll try to clean up the space in which they have been living.

"We don't have any place to put the garbage," he said.

In notes and reports from the abyss, many of the miners let it be known they are never going back into the hole.

"I have thought a lot about the future and will change my life," the youngest miner, 19-year-old Jimmy Sanchez, wrote in a letter to his sister-in-law. "I have suffered a lot and do not wish to suffer anymore."