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Rescuers Search Nepal Tunnels for Hundreds Missing After Floods Image: EFE
🇲🇽 Mexico /Disasters & Emergencies

Rescuers Search Nepal Tunnels for Hundreds Missing After Floods

From El Universal · () Spanish

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

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Rescue teams searched mud-buried hydroelectric tunnels in Nepal for hundreds of people believed trapped after catastrophic floods near the China border.
  • More than 950 people had died in Nepal and China, while over 4,400 remained missing; at least 900 workers were unaccounted for at 12 damaged hydropower projects in Nepal.
  • Flooding destroyed more than 2,500 buildings in Nepal’s Trishuli River valley, according to an estimate based on satellite analysis.

Rescuers in Nepal were racing to reach hundreds of people believed trapped inside hydroelectric tunnels buried by mud after catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border. The search continued as desperate families looked for missing relatives and the death toll across the two countries passed 950.

Our country is facing a natural disaster of unimaginable and heartbreaking scale.

— Balendra ShahThe Nepalese prime minister described the scale of the floods.

An industry association representing private electricity companies said at least 900 workers remained unaccounted for at 12 hydropower projects damaged in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. Rescue efforts focused on large tunnels built to control water flows. Some trapped people had reportedly received oxygen, but rescuers were still trying to reach them with food and water.

The operation faced dangerous conditions and the threat of another surge of water. “The difficulties are considerable,” said E. Hawadi, a police officer and deputy head of the disaster-hit Nuwakot district. “There are no roads anymore. They were all swept away by the landslide.”

These tunnels are large enough for trucks to pass through.

— Jakob SteinerThe University of Graz geoscientist described the tunnels where people were believed trapped.

Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz who is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said the tunnels were large enough for trucks to pass through. He said oxygen had reached some of those trapped, but warned that the rescue effort was “a race against time, because people need food and water.”

However, it is a race against time, because people need food and water.

— Jakob SteinerSteiner warned about the urgency of reaching people inside the tunnels.

More than 2,500 buildings were destroyed in Nepal’s Trishuli River valley, according to an estimate based on satellite analysis by the European Union’s Copernicus observatory. Amid the destruction, 16-year-old Abhishek Sharma escaped with his grandfather while being carried by floodwaters, but said the river swept away his home.

The difficulties are considerable. There are no roads anymore. They were all swept away by the landslide.

— E. HawadiThe deputy head of Nuwakot district described the conditions facing rescuers.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. 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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