Miracle in Nepal: Two people rescued from hydropower tunnel after nine days

Two people have been rescued from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after catastrophic floods swept through the Trishuli River valley. The rescue offers a rare breakthrough as more than 4,000 people remain missing.

The survivors were brought out of a tunnel connected to the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower plant, according to a member of Nepal’s parliament. Authorities hope that some of roughly 900 people missing from six hydropower facilities may have survived by taking shelter in tunnels or working inside them when the flooding struck.

More than 500 engineers and other specialists have joined a WhatsApp group to support the search. They are sharing hydropower-plant and tunnel plans, mapping information and the names and phone numbers of missing workers. The material is intended to help rescuers find buried entrances and identify places where survivors might remain trapped.

The search has been severely complicated by the flood’s impact on the landscape. Mud, rocks and other debris filled the tunnels, while about 2.2 million tonnes of sediment and wreckage accumulated across the valley. Some entrances were completely buried. At the Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, rescuers advanced 250 meters into one tunnel before reaching an obstruction, but continued the search. At Upper Trishuli 3A, it took nearly six days to reach the tunnel because the entrance was buried. Rescuers also tried to send oxygen through pipes into possible cavities.

The floods, triggered by the collapse of a glacier, killed more than 1,200 people and left more than 4,000 missing. The disaster destroyed about 10% of Nepal’s electricity-generation capacity.