Hope arrived in the darkest place imaginable more than a week after catastrophic flash floods struck the Himalayas. When search teams pulled two workers alive from a buried hydropower tunnel in Nepal, it defied every statistical odd. Days earlier, a massive glacier and rock collapse on the China-Nepal border triggered walls of mud, water, and debris, destroying communities and overwhelming infrastructure. Hundreds of workers vanished across twelve different hydropower projects, with scores believed trapped deep inside subterranean tunnels.
The grueling rescue at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station stands as a testament to sheer grit. Specialist teams, including Nepalese Army engineers and international experts, spent days drilling and tunneling through hard-packed debris. They relied on old engineering maps, satellite imagery, and heavy pumps to drain relentless water. When rescuers finally heard faint responses from deep underground, they worked frantically to carve out a tiny, person-sized passage more than 550 feet beneath the surface.
Mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah and mechanical supervisor Kabir Maharjan emerged into the daylight covered in mud but breathing. Sah later recounted spending days chanting Hindu prayers in pitch darkness after a wall of water trapped him while he tried to warn others to flee. Both men were immediately airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu for urgent medical care.
Yet, the crisis is far from over. Authorities estimate that hundreds of workers remain missing in tunnels across the region. Search and rescue crews continue their grueling work, hoping against hope to find more survivors trapped in pockets of air. This disaster has exposed the extreme vulnerabilities of high-altitude infrastructure projects in a changing climate, leaving communities demanding better early-warning systems and stronger safety protocols.
Two Workers Rescued Alive After Nine Days Trapped In Nepal Hydropower Tunnel
This video provides footage and reporting on the dramatic rescue operations inside the Nepal hydropower tunnel.
