Rescues from Tunnel and Rubble
Emergency teams in Nepal rescued two people on Saturday, ten days after catastrophic floods struck the country. A Chinese man was pulled from a 225-metre tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project by a joint team of Nepali army personnel and South Korean disaster experts, according to the Nepali military. He was undergoing a health assessment and was evacuated by helicopter, with images showing him being carried out and airlifted.[S1]
In a separate operation, a 64-year-old Nepali woman was found alive in a damaged house in the devastated town of Nuwakot. Photos from the Nepali army showed rescuers discovering her submerged in mud before pulling her to safety and airlifting her to Kathmandu for treatment. Police cheered as she was extracted from the home, whose lower half was buried in thick sludge.[S1]
Focus on Hydropower Projects
Search operations are concentrated on a dozen hydroelectric facilities in Nepal, with close to 900 workers unaccounted for and an estimated 500 possibly stuck inside tunnels. Teams from India, China, South Korea, and the United States are combing through wreckage and damaged infrastructure. On Friday, two Nepali workers were pulled out of a different tunnel at the Trishuli 3A plant, raising the number of survivors from the Trishuli site to three.[S1][S2]
The individual saved on Saturday told an official, in audio released by CCTV, that he had yelled whenever he noticed rescue lights, but they couldn't hear him. He expressed disbelief when the light was finally shone in his face. He was transported to a hospital and was reported to be in a stable condition, as per CCTV.[S3]
Disaster Toll and Challenges
The floods, triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on 26 August, have killed at least 1,375 people, with more than 5,000 missing, according to Nepal's disaster management agency. The disaster has caused massive infrastructural damage, with over 40 bridges collapsed and rivers swelling unpredictably, complicating rescue work. Experts say the chance of finding more survivors in the tunnels is diminishing as time passes.[S1]
