Nine days after disaster, two pulled alive from Nepal hydropower tunnel
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Rescue workers at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station in Rasuwa, Nepal, on Sept 3.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Two workers were rescued alive nine days after a glacier collapse trapped hundreds in hydropower tunnels on Nepal's Trishuli River.
- The disaster killed over 1,200 people, displaced thousands, and caused property losses worth $3.2 billion.
- Rescue efforts continue with international support, as survivors are treated and hopes remain for finding more trapped people.
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KATHMANDU – Rescuers pulled two survivors from a tunnel linked to a hydropower station on Nepal’s Trishuli River on Sept 4, nine days after a wall of ice, rock and mud tore through its valley, killing more than 1,300 people and leaving over 5,600 missing.
Officials and rescue workers believe the Aug 26 collapse of a glacier on the upper reaches of the river trapped at least 900 people in tunnels related to six hydropower projects along the river.
The two workers pulled from the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station are the first to be rescued from the hydropower projects and have been taken to an army hospital in the capital Kathmandu, giving search teams a flicker of hope as the possibility of finding other survivors fades.
Videos released by the Nepali authorities showed Kabir Maharjan being hoisted from a hole in the ground as bystanders cheered, then lowered onto a stretcher. His colleague Sanjay Sah was brought out on a worker’s back, his face still caked in mud, before army doctors fitted an oxygen mask and checked his vitals inside a rescue tent.
Sah, a mechanical foreman, later described staying behind in a control room to help others escape after he urged colleagues to flee upon hearing news of the disaster.
“I was in the control room, so my responsibility was to save everyone’s lives. There was such a big accident, it was not right for me to run away,” he said in a video recording shared by the Nepali authorities.
Sah told rescuers he spent time reciting mantras (verses from a prayer) while he was trapped. He said three or four more people could be alive in the tunnel, and possibly more deeply in its reaches.
At least 1,287 people have been killed in Nepal in the floods that swept away houses, streets and schools in towns and villages near the border with China’s Tibet, the disaster management authority said on Sept 4. More than 5,080 are still missing.
China has put the death toll in Tibet at 21, with 541 others listed as missing.
Miracle
Both survivors are in the intensive care unit, a source from the army hospital, where they were taken, told Reuters, with their vital signs stable.
Mechanical supervisor Maharjan cannot move his hands and legs, but Sah’s injuries are not critical, said an aide to the energy minister.
Amir Maharjan, Kabir’s brother, said he has not received any news officially, but has been told to go to the hospital.
“I have been hearing from the news that my brother has been found. The entire family is very happy,” Amir said.
A small group of people had managed to escape from another tunnel hours after the disaster struck.
A team of experts in a WhatsApp group was guiding rescue workers in the search at the hydropower projects in what has become a valuable tool alongside helicopters and heavy machinery in the race to find survivors.
More search and rescue operations were under way around the Upper Trishuli 3A project, the Nepali Army said. Rescue efforts were being led by the army and police, with assistance from experts from India, South Korea and China.
Dhan Bahadur Tamang, who earlier escaped from a tunnel linked to the Upper Trishuli 1 hydropower project, upriver from where the two men were pulled out on Sept 4, said their rescue was a miracle and raised the hope of finding more survivors.
Flood losses estimated at $3.26 billion
Property, housing and infrastructure worth at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees (S$3.26 billion) were lost in last week’s catastrophe, Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, said on Sept 4.
Nepal will need to rebuild around 20,000 houses in flood-ravaged areas, Upreti said on Sept 3, with at least 7,500 of those homes destroyed.
The disaster could result in commercial insurance losses exceeding 20 billion Nepalese rupees, with hydropower projects accounting for most claims, according to a top official at one of the country’s leading insurers.
At least 583 foreign nationals were missing in the floods, Nepal said on Sept 3, many of them pilgrims and trekkers.
Australian disaster response specialists left for Nepal on Sept 4 to join the search for survivors, as the government there expressed “serious concerns” for the welfare of its 36 missing citizens. REUTERS
