Two more people have been rescued alive in Nepal, 10 days after devastating flash floods swept through communities near the country’s border with China, bringing renewed hope to ongoing efforts to find survivors.
A Chinese national was pulled alive from a tunnel at a hydropower plant, while a 60-year-old woman was rescued from the upper floor of a four-storey building in the flood-hit town of Nuwakot. The rescue of the Chinese man brings to three the number of workers pulled alive from the Trishuli hydropower project in recent days.
Two Nepalese workers were rescued from another hydropower tunnel on Friday, providing an important breakthrough in the search for hundreds of workers believed to be trapped underground. Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Office identified the Chinese survivor as Lu Haitao and said he was rescued from a hydropower tunnel with the assistance of a team of South Korean disaster experts.
The Nepalese army said a joint team of military personnel and South Korean rescuers pulled Lu from a tunnel measuring about 225 metres, or approximately 740 feet, in length. He was undergoing a health assessment following his rescue. The rescue operation was another indication that people may still be alive in some of the tunnels despite having remained trapped for more than a week following the floods.
In Nuwakot, emergency teams also rescued the 60-year-old woman alive from a house. Nepalese Army Spokesperson said she was found on an upper floor of a four-storey building and was subsequently being airlifted to Kathmandu for medical treatment. The two rescues have provided fresh encouragement to emergency teams continuing to search areas devastated by the floods, particularly hydropower facilities along the Trishuli River.
The search has increasingly focused on 12 hydropower projects across Nepal, where authorities estimate that about 900 workers are missing. Roughly 500 of them are believed to be trapped inside tunnels. Specialised rescue teams from Nepal, India, China, South Korea and the United States have been involved in the operations, searching through debris, damaged structures and underground tunnels in an effort to locate survivors.
The involvement of international teams has added specialised expertise and equipment to the increasingly complex rescue operation, as emergency personnel attempt to navigate tunnels and structures damaged by the force of the floods. Rescuers have been searching for survivors since catastrophic flash floods swept through parts of Nepal last week, killing at least 1,000 people and leaving thousands more missing.
The floods caused widespread destruction, damaging homes and infrastructure and leaving large sections of communities covered in debris. Hydropower facilities along the Trishuli River have been particularly affected, with numerous workers still unaccounted for.
According to Suresh Raut, a deputy manager at the Nepal Electricity Authority, rescue operations in the hydropower tunnels are expected to continue for ” a few days” as teams work to determine whether additional survivors can be found. Raut said joint teams involving Nepalese police, army personnel and other officials were searching tunnels at different power stations along the Trishuli River. Emergency lights are being used to help teams navigate the damaged underground facilities as they continue the search.
However, the scale of the disaster means the search remains a major challenge. Hundreds of workers are still believed to be trapped in tunnels, while thousands of people remain missing across the country.
US Congress Members Urge Washington To Help Nepal Rescue Efforts
Meanwhile, dozens of US Congress members wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, calling on him to “do much more” to support ongoing search and rescue efforts.
In a signed letter, posted to X by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, the 27 representatives highlighted other countries which have pledged to send aid to Nepal, naming the UK, South Korea, India and China. The State Department previously said that it is providing more than $3.6 million worth of humanitarian assistance to Nepal, including emergency food assistance.
The congress members called for the following measures regarding rescue efforts in Nepal. With around 75 Americans still unaccounted for, the letter called on the State Department to provide daily updates on the missing to their family members, as well as Congress. The representatives also urged the US government to deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to communities affected by the flooding.
They requested that the State Department coordinates with “the interagency and private sector” to use assets including thermal and infrared drones to search for the missing. They asked that the State Department engages with disaster authorities from Nepal and China, as well as international organizations “to ensure full coverage and access across search areas.”
The representatives also requested that the US ensures the “rapid delivery of disaster assistance” to Nepal, and that it provides “additional reconstruction support” to “rebuild lost communities, harden infrastructure against future disasters, and spur development in affected regions.”
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