2 days ago
Nepal Searches for 933 Hydropower Workers Missing After Floods
A huge flood hit parts of Nepal on August 26.
The flood damaged homes, roads, bridges and hydropower projects.
Officials say 933 workers and employees have not been heard from since the flood.
More than 600 may still be inside underground tunnels filled with mud and water.
Some other missing people may have been carried away by rivers.
Rescuers have already saved 279 people from tunnels.
Army engineers are digging and carefully blasting rocks to reach people at one project.
Teams from India and China are helping with the rescue.
Survivors said they escaped by climbing hills, walking through forests or holding onto ladders in tunnels.
Nepalese authorities are tracing 933 hydropower workers and employees who have been out of contact since August 26.
More than 600 people are believed to be stranded in silt-filled tunnels, while others may have been swept downstream.
Rescuers have saved 279 people, including 254 from Upper Trishuli-1 and 18 from Langtang Khola.
Nepali Army engineers are using heavy machinery, ropes, trained dogs and controlled blasting at Upper Trishuli-3A in Nuwakot.
Teams from India and China are assisting Nepal as survivors describe escapes through forests, hills and flooded tunnels.
- Who
- Nepali rescue teams, Army engineers, police, hydropower workers and employees, assisted by teams from India and China.
- What
- Authorities are searching for 933 people missing or out of contact at hydropower project sites; more than 600 are believed trapped in tunnels and 279 have been rescued.
- Where
- Flood-hit hydropower sites along Nepal’s Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor, particularly in Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
- When
- The workers lost contact on August 26; rescue updates and survivor accounts continued through August 31.
- Why
- Flash floods, believed to have followed a glacier, ice-and-rock collapse or avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border, filled tunnels with silt and destroyed access routes.
Official and Company Estimates
Reported Rescue Uncertainty
Scale of the missing-worker crisis
Official and Company Estimates
NDRRMA reported 933 people missing from hydropower projects and more than 600 believed stranded in tunnels.
Reported Rescue Uncertainty
The Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal, cited at least 900 workers unaccounted for and about 500 believed trapped, while another report estimated 933 people still trapped; the differing figures reflect uncertainty about workers’ locations.
Prospects for survivors
Official and Company Estimates
Rescue teams and an outside geoscientist said some trapped workers might have access to oxygen, and operations continued to reach them.
Reported Rescue Uncertainty
Officials and power-sector representatives warned that the chances of finding survivors were diminishing because workers may lack food, water or air; four bodies were reported recovered from three mud-filled tunnels.
Key facts
- People missing or out of contact
- 933 hydropower workers and employees, according to NDRRMA
- People believed stranded in tunnels
- More than 600, according to NDRRMA
- People rescued from tunnels
- 279, including 254 from Upper Trishuli-1 and 18 from Langtang Khola
- Largest named project
- Upper Trishuli-1, a 216-megawatt project under construction
- Upper Trishuli-1 situation
- More than 500 people were reported out of contact; estimates of those believed inside tunnels ranged from about 300 to around 400
- Upper Trishuli-3A rescue team
- A 90-member team comprising 66 Nepali Army personnel, 18 Armed Police Force personnel and six Nepal Police personnel
- Upper Trishuli-3A access
- Rescuers created a six-square-foot opening; the tunnel mouth was later located about 40 metres upstream and eight metres below it
Quotes
Maraval Nagappan
Owner of an Indian travel company searching for his missing son
“We had to keep climbing while also watching for falling stones. There was no time to stop and think.”
theprint.in
“I haven’t heard from my son since then. I don’t know whether he is alive or dead.”
republicworld.com
Jakob Steiner
Geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh
“These tunnels are big enough to drive trucks through. And from what we understand, they have managed to get oxygen to some of those stuck inside and are trying to rescue them now. It’s a race for time, though, as people need food and water.”
republicworld.com
Sources
Hundreds Feared Stuck in Hydropower Tunnels As Flood Deaths Surpass 950 in Nepal and Tibet
Nepal floods: 933 hydropower workers feared trapped in tunnels
Nepal floods: 933 missing from hydropower project sites
Nepal floods: Tunnel workers recount desperate flights as hundreds remain trapped
Nepal still searching for over 930 buried in hydropower tunnels
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