West Virginians are mourning their deceased coal miners and voicing their support for the miners’ families.

So are people in Florida, Louisiana, California, Texas, Hawaii, Iraq and the United Kingdom.

Not everyone can bring a chicken dinner or a pie to grieving coal mining families left reeling after losing loved ones in the Upper Big Branch explosion in western Raleigh County. But they are still voicing their support and offering prayers over social networking Web sites — with word literally spreading to hundreds of thousands of people all over the planet.

Morgantown area resident Mandi Hall created a Facebook page called “PRAY FOR THE COAL MINERS IN RALEIGH CO. WV” around 6 p.m. Monday, just after the news broke. During the first 24 hours of the page’s existence, 70,000 to 75,000 people became fans.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 113,000 people were fans.

Hall said her former husband and father of two of her children worked in a dangerous coal mine that was eventually shut down.

“I knew what it was like to see him go to work and wonder if he would come home or not,” she said.

She started the page because of her firm belief in prayer and to have a place for her friends and family to voice their support. But, like prayer chains that have been used for years, word spread from one Facebook user to another — and another. People who do not even know coal miners became page fans.

“Never in my wildest dreams ...,” Hall said. “We had posts from soldiers in Iraq who said they left their porch lights on for the miners.”

A deceased miner’s cousin in Georgia e-mailed Hall, and several people posting on the page have talked about the coal miners in their families losing co-workers or their own lives in mining accidents. One post came from a woman who said her father worked in an Alabama mine where 13 workers were killed in September 2001.

“I pray every day for my daddy and the miners everywhere. My heart goes out to the families that lost their loved ones. May God be with them!!!” she posted.

Hall said people today stay so busy and on the run, but still want to help others. A quick post or e-mail gives them that chance, and it is something that can be done in less than a minute.

Many people, Hall said, are pointing fingers, but she emphasizes her page is only for people to voice their care and concern for the miners’ families.

“This is about the children who have lost their poppies or their dads,” she said. “I don’t want to focus on what could have been or should have been done. ... It’s not about that.”

The page’s tremendous growth, to her, proves most people in society care for one another and want to pull together in a time of tragedy.

“It reassures you that people do have a heart,” she said. “It’s great if someone wants to join my site or anyone else’s. People have been asking where they can send cards or donate money. ... You can do something. Even if you just say a prayer while you’re driving home from work, that says something about you.”

Numerous outpourings of support have shown up on Facebook. Another support group has more than 50,000 members. Many people have attached black “Twibbons” to their default photos to honor the miners. Twibbons are small images of support ribbons used by numerous causes. Facebook’s “Causes” application also has a new page set up.

Twitter has also become an active place for discussion about the disaster and for people to show their support. More people are using the black Twibbons as default photos.

Tweets have come from New York, California and London, to name a few places. As many as 100 new tweets are coming in less than an hour’s time — almost every hour. Users are also “re-tweeting” the posts repeatedly, and word further spreads.

A user in Dallas tweeted: “RT (re-tweet) Every1 please keep the West Virginia miners in yr thoughts, regardless of who you pray to. Power of positive thoughts is endless.(RT plz)”

A Honolulu user had re-tweeted “Please pray for the West Virginia Miners,” after it had already been tweeted on at least two other pages.

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship posted 11 explosion-related tweets to his Twitter page around 9 a.m. Thursday, according to listed post times. His tweets praised miners’ families, Massey employees, MSHA, Gov. Joe Manchin, supportive citizen e-mails, rescue teams, emergency service workers, support groups, churches and the company spousal group and others working to make families comfortable.

However, Blankenship decried “the indignity of much of the media” in those tweets.

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com