Rescuers Pull Two Alive From Nepal Flood Tunnel
Rescuers Pull Two Alive From Nepal Flood Tunnel
The News
Rescuers in Nepal pulled two workers alive from a mud-filled tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant on Friday, nine days after catastrophic floods buried villages across the Himalayan region.
Search teams heard voices from inside the tunnel that morning and located the men, Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane told The Associated Press. Officials identified them as a mechanical foreman and a mechanical supervisor.
About 900 workers are missing from 12 hydropower projects in Nepal, with roughly 500 believed trapped in tunnels, according to authorities. At least 1,287 people were killed in the Aug. 26 floods and more than 5,000 remain missing, Nepal's disaster management agency says.
Timeline
Floods, likely caused by a glacier collapse, tear through the Nepal-China border region, sweeping away villages and submerging the area in mud and debris.
Search teams at Trishuli 3A hear voices inside the tunnel. Two workers are hoisted into the open air, one carried out on a rescuer's back, covered in mud, with soldiers steadying him on either side. Both are flown to a hospital in Kathmandu; one is in critical condition, according to a statement from the prime minister's office.
Nepal's disaster agency estimates the flooding caused at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees, about $2.5 billion, in damage to infrastructure and property. China says 31 people were killed and 531 are missing on the Tibet side of the border, according to the official news agency Xinhua.
Rescuers pull a Chinese national alive from a hydropower tunnel 10 days after the floods, according to the Nepali army as reported by CNN and the prime minister's office as reported by The Independent.
About 115 people are believed trapped in the Trishuli 3A tunnel alone, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal.
The Numbers
Reactions
"I can't explain what we are feeling at the moment. We are just grateful to god," Amir Maharjan, the brother of one of the rescued men, told The Associated Press. He said his family was on its way to the hospital in Kathmandu.
Nepal's Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina wrote on Facebook that officials "are waiting for the rescue of more and more people."
Arnold Dix, an Australian engineer and geologist who worked at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 attacks, called the rescue a "triumph for humans and humanity" and said finding two workers alive at Trishuli 3A "gives us hope," according to The Guardian.
One of the rescued workers told The New York Times he had recited prayers over and over while trapped deep underground, and asked: "How many days has it been?"
What's Next
The search is ongoing. One of the rescued men said more people are alive inside the tunnel, according to army spokesman Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet.
Crews are still working the other hydropower sites where roughly 500 workers are believed to be trapped, and Nepali authorities are continuing to count the dead and missing from a disaster that has already displaced whole villages.
More
The Aug. 26 floods hit a stretch of the Himalayas dotted with hydropower construction — the projects that put hundreds of workers underground in tunnels when the water and debris came down. The rescue of two men after nine days is the first sign since the disaster that some of those workers may still be alive.
Poll
Nine days on, what do you expect from the search at Nepal's hydropower tunnels?
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