After reported missing following a soccer match on June 23, a boys soccer team and their 25-year-old coach have been found among the flooded caves of a tourist attraction, Tham Luang Nan Non cave in Chiang Rai Province of Thailand.

Following a lull in the rainfall through July 1, teams were able to better access the meandering caves and finally discover the stranded team on July 2. Thai Navy SEALS have tended to the boys' health and sustenance needs, but the route to extracting the team is still unclear.

While hungry and scared but relatively unharmed, it has proven a complicated process to get the boys and their coach out of the cave. It took skilled divers many days to access the cave, and there is no way out of the area other than scuba diving.

On Friday, the mission endured its first fatality when a former Thai Navy SEAL passed out underwater and could not be revived, the Associated Press reported.

In this handout photo released by Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center, Thai rescue teams walk inside cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach went missing, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Monday, July 2, 2018. Rescue divers are advancing in the main passageway inside the flooded cave in northern Thailand where the boys and their coach have been missing more than a week. (Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center via AP)

Since June 24, one day after the team was reported missing and was suspected to be in the area, crews have been attempting to pump flood waters out of the caves.

During the rainy monsoon season, heavy downpours are frequent and widespread, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty explained. This often results in flooding, which can quickly inundate narrow pathways such as those in Tham Luang Nang Non cave.

"There will be scattered showers and thunderstorms across the area into this weekend," Douty said. "There is no significant stretch of dry weather in the near future," he warned.

Heavy rainfall has hampered efforts to lower the water level. According to the Associated Press, water remains up to the ceiling of some passages making diving the only way in or out of the cave.

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"We tried to pump the water (out of the chamber), but the water keeps rising. That means the water that comes in with the rain is still much more than what we can pump out," Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn said. "So we need to pump the water faster."

"We found them safe, but the operation isn't over," said deputy governor of the Chiang Rai Province, Passakorn Bunyalak.

According to CNN, Capt. Akanand Surawan, a commander with the Royal Thai Navy, said authorities would now supply the group with four months' worth of food and begin teaching the boys how to scuba dive. The four-month time frame suggests authorities are considering waiting out the rainy season, which ends in October.

Rescuers continue to weigh options as the ongoing rainfall in the region makes navigating the elaborate cave system difficult, even for experts.

The rainy season typically runs from July through October, meaning the boys could be trapped within the cave for several months if diving out is deemed unsafe.

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