Nepal flood death toll reaches 955 as rescuers search power plant tunnels for about 900 isolated people

Rescuers in Nepal are concentrating on hydropower plant tunnels where more than 900 workers are believed to be isolated, seven days after major flooding struck the region.

Nepal’s confirmed death toll stood at 939 as of the afternoon of Aug. 31, according to figures cited from the country’s disaster management authorities. Another 3,935 people could not be contacted, including 592 foreign nationals. In Tibet, Chinese state media reported 16 deaths and 546 missing people. Combined, the two areas have recorded 955 deaths and more than 4,400 missing people. Authorities in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state have recovered 17 bodies believed to be flood victims from areas including the lower Trishuli River. Those deaths were not included in the Nepalese or Chinese totals.

Nepal has deployed 8,900 troops and helicopters to search for survivors. The Nepalese army said it rescued or evacuated another 109 people on Aug. 31 and treated 165 people at emergency clinics along the Trishuli River and elsewhere. A five-year-old girl, Manisha Uchai Magar, was rescued near the Nepal-China border on Aug. 28 after reportedly surviving for more than 60 hours beneath mud and building debris.

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I believe there is a 50% chance that he is alive because there is an oxygen supply system inside the tunnel.

The search is now focused on tunnel networks at six hydropower plants, where the government believes more than 900 workers are trapped. Nine South Koreans were working at the Upper Trishuli-1 plant when the disaster struck. On Aug. 31, a Chinese rescue team reached 300 meters inside that plant’s tunnel and recovered one body, whose nationality and identity had not been established. At the Trishuli-3A plant, teams located a tunnel entrance and began pumping out water and supplying air. At the Chilime plant, rescuers had reached 35 meters inside while clearing a passage.

Families continue to hope that workers remain alive. Sita Pandey, whose husband works at a hydropower plant, told Kantipur, “I believe there is a 50% chance that he is alive because there is an oxygen supply system inside the tunnel.” Priya Karel, who is waiting for her brother, an engineer at Upper Trishuli-1, told the BBC that people who returned from the site said there were people inside the tunnel. “If the army can reach them quickly, there is hope they can be rescued,” she said.

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People who returned from the hydropower plant site said there are people inside the tunnel. If the army can reach them quickly, there is hope they can be rescued.