• Workers rescued: Two people have been rescued from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal, a dramatic breakthrough more than a week after catastrophic floods hit the country’s border with China. It’s not clear how many people are inside the tunnel, according to a lawmaker.
• Voices heard: Rescuers are digging by hand to reach survivors in the stricken plant after blowing up rocks “the size of cars” to clear a path. Voices were heard from inside the facility, one of multiple energy projects where hundreds of workers were trapped.
• “World first”: A disaster-response expert advising the rescue efforts described the operation as a dangerous and unprecedented attempt to identify buried tunnel entrances.
• Death toll: The number of people killed in Nepal now exceeds 1,290. The death toll in China was 21, according to its latest update on Wednesday. About 5,500 across both countries remain missing.
Video released by the Nepali Army showed the moments after rescuers reached the two workers who were freed after nine days trapped underground.
Video shows moment rescuers reach trapped men inside Nepal tunnel
0:53 • Source: CNN
Video shows moment rescuers reach trapped men inside Nepal tunnel
0:53
We are beginning to get more information from the Nepal Electricity Authority on the two men who were rescued alive from a flood-stricken hydropower tunnel, nine days after the disaster.
The first man has been identified as 30-year-old Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman from Saptari district in eastern Nepal.
The second man is Kabir Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor from Kathmandu.
Both men are being treated at a military hospital in Kathmandu, according to the Nepali Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Sah is in stable condition, while Maharjan is in critical condition and under intensive care, according to the PMO.
We are getting new details about how the rescue of two men from a flood-stricken hydropower tunnel unfolded in Nepal.
“Don’t panic, we are rescuing you,” emergency workers said after they heard voices from the tunnel early Friday, according to Nepali lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane.
Rescuers then heard a response of “Okay,” said Neupane, who has been involved in operations at the site.
The two men were pulled out alive, nine days after being trapped by the devastating floods along the Nepal-China border.
As today’s unfolding rescues in the tunnels provide rare hope in Nepal more than a week after the flood disaster, some workers were lucky to escape the hydropower plants earlier.
These workers survived but had to witness horrible scenes of their brothers and colleagues being swept away by flood waters. On Sunday they spoke to CNN’s Hanako Montgomery who is on the ground and shares their devastating stories on Meanwhile in Asia. Watch the full episode of Meanwhile in Asia here.
Meanwhile in Asia: Hydropower workers on how they survived Nepal’s floods
1:19 • Source: CNN
Meanwhile in Asia: Hydropower workers on how they survived Nepal’s floods
1:19
Just a reminder of the type of conditions facing rescuers at the Trishuli 3A site: pitch-black walkways with no power; mud-slick floors that threaten to swallow you; and only a few bars for support.
This staggering footage obtained earlier this week by a CNN team on the ground offers a glimpse inside these intricate networks, where desperate rescue efforts have persisted for nine days since floods devastated the region.
The tunnels were built to harness Nepal’s rivers and fuel its booming hydropower industry, CNN’s Hanako Montgomery reported from an earlier rescue mission.
One clip shows rescuers rappelling from a helicopter to the remote site, then sliding two rescued men across the mud, on their bellies. Other footage captures diggers, and people with picks and shovels, removing earth in hopes of reaching trapped workers.
Some rescued men told CNN the tunnels were “filled with bodies” and the flood stripped them of everything they had, including their clothes.
Amar Bista was not working at the tunnels but rushed into action as soon as he heard of the catastrophe at the site, where dozens of his relatives and friends work.
Four days in the mountains left him haunted.
“Hundreds of people are there and no food,” he said through tears. “A lot of nights I cannot sleep (because I’m) crying.”
The Trishuli barracks is a hive of activity as the Nepal Army continues operations after two men were pulled alive from a hydropower tunnel nine days after the flood disaster.
One of the rescued men was brought by chopper to the barracks before being transferred to a military hospital in Chhauni, Kathmandu.
The other man was flown directly to Kathmandu from the tunnel.
A CNN team saw choppers flying overhead and saw Nepal Oil Corporation fuel trucks entering and leaving the compound.
As we await more information on the rescue operation to reach trapped workers at a hydropower station in Nepal, here’s a look back at the efforts of emergency responders to reach them.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper visited the site days before the miraculous rescue.
Nepal rescuers race against time to reach trapped workers
3:03 • Source: CNN
Nepal rescuers race against time to reach trapped workers
3:03
The rescue of two men from a flood-stricken hydropower tunnel is a “bright light in a very, very tragic story” that has gripped people across the world, CNN’s Hanako Montgomery reported from Nepal.
If you’re just joining us, here’s what we know about the rescue operation so far:
Two men pulled alive from Nepal tunnel after 9 days
8:25 • Source: CNN
Two men pulled alive from Nepal tunnel after 9 days
8:25
Today’s rescue follows days of arduous work. Heavy machinery was used to haul away mud and sludge around the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, Lt. Col. Ganga Baral, of the Nepali Army, said in an update Thursday.
Five excavators, compressors and breakers were doing the heavy lifting to bring rescuers closer to any possible survival zone. Blasting work was also carried out to enlarge the tunnel’s entrance, he added.
Inside, explosives were used to clear a path to survivors, though it’s unclear how many are still alive after last week’s devastating floods, triggered by a glacier collapse.
Rescuers have to be careful as they get closer, to ensure no one else is lost in the disaster, said Arnold Dix, a geologist who’s been advising the rescue.
“We can’t do this with machines, we do this by hand,” said Dix.
The Trishuli 3A power station, where today’s dramatic rescue is taking place, was unrecognizable after the flood – rescuers didn’t know where the entrance was and had no idea where to start digging for survivors.
Working off satellite data, as-built drawings of the power station and topographic information, they were able to narrow down the location of a tunnel least likely to have collapsed, said Arnold Dix, a geologist advising Nepali rescuers on the ground.
The team started digging through the debris, then found water, which had to be drained, Dix said. Once inside the tunnels, they found their path blocked by enormous rocks.
The tunnel “was full of rocks the size of cars and mud and all the rest of it. So, we have to blow them up in the tunnel, which is incredibly dangerous because we’re in the tunnel, and there might be people on the other side,” Dix said.
More now on the news we brought you earlier, as rescuers continue to dig into the ground above the Trishuli 3A hydropower project in hope of pulling more men alive from its flood-striken tunnels.
According to a local lawmaker, it is unclear how many people are in the hydropower tunnel where effort are focused: “Search and rescue is underway. There are not many people… it’s my sense,” lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane told CNN on Friday.
“But few more people could be there inside the tunnel. Search operation is going on. How many people are inside… still not confirmed.” Neupane added.
It’s the image many thought they would never see.
Newly released images by Nepal’s military show the dramatic moments two men were freed from hydropower tunnels after more than a week trapped inside.
Two of the photos showed a man lying on a stretcher while rescue workers carried him through the mud-filled tunnel at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project towards the light. In another, rescuers were captured crawling through muddied water in the tunnel. A third photo showed rescuers holding up a disoriented-looking man.
Other images showed the moment one of the men was pulled from the tunnel by about a dozen rescuers — likely the first time he has been exposed to daylight in nine days — the unbridled joy and emotion evident on everyone’s faces.
Worker rescued nine days after Nepal flooding disaster
0:14 • Source: CNN
Worker rescued nine days after Nepal flooding disaster
0:14
Today’s remarkable rescue effort is a stark reminder that teams have been working tirelessly at the tunnels for five days straight.
Hopes had been fading for the safe rescue of the workers at the plants that run along Nepal’s Trishuli River – among them foreigners from China, South Korea and India. A torrent of cement-like floodwater had engulfed the river and its surrounding areas, killing more than 1,200 people in Nepal.
It’s not clear how many people may still be alive inside the tunnel where the rescue effort is unfolding. Nepali authorities say there are more than 900 workers missing at multiple energy projects in the Himalayas including many foreign national workers.
Following an earlier rescue last week, survivor Ram Chandra recalled tightly gripping onto one of the rungs studded into the roof of a tunnel as the flood waters began to quickly rise.
His quick reaction likely saved his life.
“The water was rising and it was difficult to move my legs. If I had let go from that rung I would have fallen,” Chandra told a CNN team on the ground after being brought down from the disaster zone by helicopter last Sunday.
He had grabbed hold of a tin sheet to have something to place under his feet and the group passed it around as they inched their way forward, rung by rung, for six hours.
“There were six of us and we later found someone else at the gate of the tunnel,” he said.
Arnold Dix, a disaster-response expert and tunnel engineering professor advising the rescue efforts, described the operation as a dangerous and unprecedented attempt to identify buried tunnel entrances.
“It appears we now have proof of concept for a methodology to perform a rescue, because this is a world first,” he said from Singapore, en route to Nepal.
“We’ve never done this before, and now we have a proof. And there’s other power stations we still haven’t got to.”
“Of course, we pause and celebrate. But it now also means we need to take a back step and go, ‘Okay, of the 500 reasons we all thought we could fail, we’ve been able to prove one method that works. Now, how can we apply that somewhere else?’” he told CNN.
Dix described the hydropower tunnels left as “full of water” in the aftermath of the floods. Teams have to make the high-risk decisions to blow up “rocks the size of cars” to reach people trapped inside, he said.
“So we’re tunneling along under the roof, and we know in our heads that underneath us are likely people who died. So there’s a whole lot of psychology and all of that,” he said.
There were 42 people missing at the Trishuli 3A hydropower project, where two people were pulled alive from a tunnel Friday, according to a Nepal Army list released on Thursday morning local time.
More than 900 workers in total are still considered missing at 11 different hydro schemes in Nepal.
People missing at hydropower projects (as of Thursday):
- Upper Trishuli-1 –– 557
- Trishuli 3B –– 191
- Rasuwagadhi –– 93
- Trishuli 3A –– 42
- Langtang Khola –– 40
- Mailung Khola –– 7
- Chilime –– 6
- Rasuwa Bhotekoshi –– 4
- Trishuli –– 2
- Madhya Trishuli Ganga –– 2
- Devighat –– 1
- TOTAL: 945
Source: Nepal Army
CNN's Anderson Cooper reports from rescue operation at Nepal's hydropower tunnels
7:19 • Source: CNN
CNN's Anderson Cooper reports from rescue operation at Nepal's hydropower tunnels
7:19
Parikshit Mehra, an Indian army colonel, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who reported from the Trishuli 3A site earlier this week, that for a rescue mission like this one, “the first 48 hours are the most crucial.”
“People who are stuck tend to panic much more than when they are outside in the open,” Mehra said in an interview with Cooper earlier this week, outside the tunnels where the colonel was leading a team of specialized troops.
“Getting stuck in a tunnel you can’t see anything. Generally if you stay in the dark you get disoriented in about 24-25 hours,” he said. “Beyond that, (after) 48 hours, you start hallucinating. And then I think from there on it’s always a fight.”
But, Mehra added: “There have been miracles.”
For context: Today’s rescues took place nine days after the disaster struck, underscoring how significant this breakthrough is. However there are some 900 workers missing inside the tunnels at multiple energy projects in the Himalayas.
A second person has now been rescued from inside the tunnels of the stricken Nepali hydropower plant, Bipin Regmi, police chief for the district of Nuwakot, told CNN.
Shri Ram Neupane, a local lawmaker, confirmed the rescue on Facebook and posted a picture of the man lying on a stretcher with an oxygen mask on his face.
Cheers erupted as a man was pulled alive from a tunnel at Nepal’s Trishuli 3A Hydropower project on Friday morning, after being trapped inside for nine days after catastrophic floods tore through the region.
Video showed the man being hoisted by a group of rescuers from a hole bored down into the tunnel, as onlookers clapped and cheered.
Dozens of hydropower worker are believed to have been near the powerhouse inside the tunnel when the disaster stuck last Wednesday.
A man has been rescued from inside the tunnels of a stricken Nepali hydropower plant, where more voices have been heard, local officials told CNN, nine days after massive flash floods and landslides trapped hundreds of workers inside multiple Himalayan energy projects.
In a dramatic breakthrough for what has been a desperate, round-the-clock rescue effort in treacherous conditions, the man was pulled from inside the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant, where an operation has been underway to bore into a tunnel to search for 42 workers that were unaccounted for.
“Rescuers heard voices,” said Bipin Regmi, police chief in the flood-hit district of Nuwakot told CNN, adding a medical team was on its way to the site.
The tunnel that leads to the underground powerhouse there, where dozens of people were working when the catastrophic flood hit, is more than four kilometers (2.5 miles) long.
Hopes had been fading for the safe rescue of the workers at the plants that run along Nepal’s Trishuli River – among them foreigners from China, South Korea and India. A torrent of cement-like floodwater had engulfed the river and its surrounding areas, killing more than 1,200 people in Nepal.