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🇳🇵 Nepal /Disasters & Emergencies

How Two Men Survived Nine Days in a Nepal Flood Tunnel

From Kathmandu Post · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Outcome reported
  • Two hydropower workers survived nine days in an air-filled chamber beneath a tunnel after a glacier collapse caused catastrophic flooding in Nepal’s Trishuli valley.
  • Kabir Maharjan and Sanjay Sah were among hundreds of workers believed buried after the disaster, which killed more than 1,300 people and left thousands missing across Nepal and neighbouring Tibet.
  • Their rescue has raised hopes that some of the 121 workers still believed trapped in tunnels may also be alive.

Kabir Maharjan drifted in and out of consciousness in muddy water, trapped in complete darkness beneath the wreckage of a Nepalese hydropower tunnel. When rescuers finally brought him out after nine days, he awoke in hospital unable to recognise his wife.

Confused, Maharjan asked Hira Shova Maharjan why she had not given him a bed sooner. He and mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah had survived inside an air-filled chamber, according to lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane, a veteran tunnel engineer who helped lead the rescue effort.

I have to go inside the tunnel. There won’t be any network inside.

· Kabir MaharjanMaharjan spoke to his wife before entering the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel on the morning of the disaster.

The men were among hundreds of hydropower workers believed to have been buried when a glacier collapsed above Nepal’s Trishuli valley on August 26. The collapse sent a wall of mud and water downstream, killing more than 1,300 people and leaving thousands missing across Nepal and neighbouring Tibet.

Their survival has given hope to search teams working along the devastated valley. As of Monday, 121 workers were still believed to be trapped in tunnels. Reuters reconstructed the two men’s ordeal and the effort to find them through interviews with relatives, engineers, government officials and rescuers, as well as site documents, maps and internal rescue communications.

Floods are normal

· Suraj DahalThe Nepal Electricity Authority engineer said officials were not immediately alarmed when hydropower stations began disappearing from control screens.

Maharjan had called his wife at 7:30 a.m., before starting his shift at the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project. “I have to go inside the tunnel,” he told her. “There won’t be any network inside.” About an hour later, a glacier collapsed at Langtang Lirung mountain, roughly 25 miles upstream, sending a landslide and wall of water through villages and a network of 12 hydropower projects with nearly 900 workers inside.

In Kathmandu, electricity officials watched the projects disappear from control screens one after another. Officials initially hesitated because floods are common in Nepal, said engineer Suraj Dahal of the Nepal Electricity Authority. The manager of the 3A station was abroad, delaying contact with the roughly 40 workers inside. At 9:15 a.m., two minutes after Maharjan’s wife failed to reach him, officials issued the final order: “Evacuate!”

Evacuate!

· Nepalese officialsOfficials issued the final evacuation order to the Upper Trishuli 3A project at 9:15 a.m.
About this summary

Originally published by Kathmandu Post in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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