Silkyara fame rescuer faces a never-before challenge in Nepal: 'Multiple potential rescues'

Arnold Dix says Nepal has confronted him with a rescue challenge unlike any he has faced before: not one operation, but several potential rescues unfolding at the same time.

The Australian tunnel expert arrived in Nepal on Saturday to support the search for people believed to be trapped inside the Chilime hydropower tunnel. Working with Nepali and Indian experts, he has been assessing the site and revising the strategy for reaching an underground powerhouse where the missing may have sought shelter.

“Right now, in Nepal, we are facing something I have never faced before,” Dix wrote in a post on X. “Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved.”

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Right now, in Nepal, we are facing something I have never faced before.

The operation follows devastating flash floods on August 26, after a glacier broke off and collapsed into a river along the Himalayan border between Nepal and China’s Tibet. The floods swept away towns and villages and buried roads and highways in mud and debris. At least 1,380 people had died and more than 5,500 remained missing by September 7.

Four people, including a Chinese national, have more recently been rescued from the hydropower tunnel. Teams continue to search for others trapped beneath the debris.

Dix drew on his experience from the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel collapse in India in 2023. On November 12 that year, a collapse covered about 60 metres near the tunnel entrance and trapped 41 workers. Rescuers freed all of them 17 days later, on November 28, after maintaining communication and delivering food, medicine, water and electricity while pursuing several rescue options.

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Not one rescue, but multiple potential rescues, unfolding at the same time, in different places, each with its own dangers, uncertainties and lives that may still be saved.