Devastating Floods in Nepal: Rescuers Pull Two Workers Alive from Tunnel

Two workers have been pulled alive from a tunnel at Nepal’s flood-hit Trishuli 3A hydroelectric plant, nine days after catastrophic flooding left about 1,200 people dead.

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It appears that we now have proof that this particular methodology can be used for a rescue operation, because this is something that is being done for the first time in the world.

Rescuers continued working around the clock in dangerous conditions because other people may still be trapped inside. Authorities were searching for 42 missing workers, and police and a lawmaker said voices had been heard from the tunnels.

Suresh Raut, a senior official with the Nepal Electricity Authority who was at the rescue site, told the BBC that rescuers were giving oxygen to one of the survivors, identified by authorities as Sanjaya Shah. A medical team was also heading toward the location after the reported voices were heard.

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We have never done anything like this before and now we have an initial confirmation that it can work.

The tunnel leading to the plant’s underground powerhouse stretches for more than four kilometers. Arnold Dix, a disaster-management specialist and tunnel-engineering professor advising the rescue teams, called the operation dangerous and unprecedented. He said the teams were trying to reach buried tunnel entrances and might have to blast through rocks the size of cars. The tunnels were flooded, he said, and rescuers still had not reached other power stations along Nepal’s Trishuli River.

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Of course, we stop for a moment and celebrate. But now this also means that we have to take a step back and move forward.