Third Worker Pulled Alive From Nepal Tunnel

Third Worker Pulled Alive From Nepal Tunnel

Rescue workers in protective gear searching through mud and debris at a tunnel site in mountainous terrain
Rescue workers search through debris at Nepal's Trishuli 3A hydropower plant after flooding killed over 1,200 people.Illustration: The Frank

The News

Rescuers in Nepal pulled a Chinese national alive from a hydropower tunnel on Saturday, 10 days after catastrophic floods hit the country, Reuters reported.

It is the third worker brought out of the Trishuli hydropower project alive, The Independent reported. Reuters reported the rescue came a day after two Nepalis were pulled out of the same tunnel system.

CNN, citing the Nepali army, reported crews rescued a man from a tunnel 10 days after the floods on the Nepal-China border. The Independent attributed the rescue to the prime minister's office.

The Associated Press reported that rescuers pulled a Chinese national and a woman alive on the same day.

One Discrepancy, Flagged

Sources do not agree on who is who. Reuters, CNN, The Independent and the AP describe the person rescued from the tunnel as a Chinese national, with a woman rescued separately.

The Sun reported it the other way: a man pulled from the hydropower tunnel, and a woman — described by The Sun as the Chinese national — saved from a house in flood-hit Nuwakot.

The Frank is going with the majority account and naming the outlier rather than smoothing it over.

Timeline

Ten days ago

floods swept away villages and submerged the Himalayan region in mud and debris, PBS NewsHour reported. Reuters describes the trigger as the collapse of a glacier.

Friday, day nine

two workers were pulled alive from an underground tunnel at the hydropower plant, PBS NewsHour reported. The New York Times reported one of the two said he had recited prayers over and over while trapped deep underground, asking rescuers, "How many days has it been?"

Saturday, day 10

the third tunnel rescue, plus the woman.

Reactions

Arnold Dix, the Australian engineer and geologist who worked at Ground Zero after 9/11, told The Guardian the recovery of workers alive in Trishuli 3A is a "triumph for humans and humanity" and "gives us hope."

What Is Not Established

How many people remain trapped. PBS NewsHour reported dozens of others are believed trapped; Scripps News reported hundreds still missing or trapped. The Frank is not printing a single figure for the missing, and readers should treat every count out of Kathmandu with care — a British volunteer has said publicly that officials announced his rescue when he had never been missing.

The condition of those rescued. No source reviewed for this article gives a medical assessment.

What's Next

The search of the Trishuli tunnels continues. CNN is running live updates from the Nepal-China border.

More

Sources: Reuters, The Associated Press, CNN, The Independent, PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, The Guardian, Scripps News, WESH 2 News, The Sun.

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