Rescue teams in Nepal have pulled several survivors from debris and tunnels nearly 10 days after catastrophic floods devastated parts of the country, offering rare signs of hope amid a continuing search for hundreds of missing people.
On September 5, a Chinese worker was rescued from 225 meters inside a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district. The man, identified by the Chinese state media as Luhaitao, was found by a joint team of Nepalese military personnel and international experts, including specialists from China, India, South Korea, and Australia. He was evacuated by helicopter and taken to a hospital in Kathmandu, where his health was reported as stable. His rescue marked the third live extraction from the project’s hydropower tunnels, following the discovery of two Nepali workers at the nearby Upper Trishuli-3A site the previous day.
The ongoing rescue operations focus heavily on hydropower projects, where approximately 900 workers remain unaccounted for after the floods struck on August 26. The disaster, triggered by a glacier and rock collapse in the Himalayas, unleashed tsunami-like waves along river valleys bordering Nepal and the Tibet region of China. The force of the flood buried or severely damaged at least 12 hydropower plants, complicating rescue efforts as many workers were underground at the time.
Experts involved in the operation have highlighted the extreme difficulty in accessing the affected tunnels, which are filled with mud, boulders, and debris. Heavy machinery was required to clear paths, but poor road conditions and the weight of excavation equipment limited transport options. International tunneling specialists employed satellite technology to locate precise sites, and rescue workers used explosives and specialized digging tools to reach trapped workers. Despite these challenges, some survivors have been found, including mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah, who was rescued from the Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel after nearly nine days, along with fellow worker Kabir Maharjan. Sah described efforts to protect and warn colleagues just before the waters rose inside the facility.
Beyond the hydropower tunnels, rescuers also discovered a Nepali woman, Chandrika Shrestha, alive in her mud-buried home in Nuwakot district, airlifting her to Kathmandu for treatment. She had been trapped since the floods wiped out much of the town and was found after locals heard faint cries for help. Her survival was particularly remarkable given she had been clinging to life for 10 days beneath thick sludge, defying typical survival expectations following such disasters.
The floods have claimed at least 1,344 lives in Nepal, with roughly 5,000 people still missing, according to the country’s disaster management agency. In China, state media reported 31 deaths and over 500 missing, bringing the combined toll in the region to more than 1,375 fatalities and over 5,500 missing persons.
Authorities have faced criticism over the speed and scale of the rescue operations, with Nepal’s prime minister Balendra Shah noting that the specialized nature of the work and challenging terrain limited their capacity. The government continues to coordinate efforts with foreign experts and military teams to search through collapsed structures, focusing on securing missing persons and recovering bodies where possible. Meanwhile, overwhelmed morgues have led to mass burials following DNA sample collection for identification purposes.
Despite the odds, the discovery of survivors like Luhaitao, Sah, and Shrestha has provided hope to families and rescuers amid a vast and complex emergency response in the wake of one of Nepal’s deadliest natural disasters.