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5d ago

Nepal Floods: Rescue Teams Race to Reach Workers in Buried Hydropower Tunnels

Specialist crews are clearing silted tunnel entrances, piping oxygen into Chilime and Upper Trishuli sites, with international teams joining the effort to find survivors.

Thematic Himalayan landslide scar near Tuinkhola, Nepal — landscape only, no victim faces. CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Hira Shova Maharjan, 45, wife of Kabir Maharjan, a survivor pulled out alive after spending nine days trapped in a hydropower station tunnel following flash floods and a mudslide, reacts during an interview with Reuters at a cafe near an army hospital where her husband is currently admitted, in Kathmandu, Nepal, September 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis
Members of Nepal Army's search-and-rescue team work near a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project following devastating floods and mudslides that struck the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa, Nepal, September 4, 2026. Nepal Army/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.
Members of the Nepal Army search and rescue team carry a survivor they rescued alive after he had been trapped inside a tunnel at the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project following devastating floods and mudslides that struck the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa, Nepal, September 4, 2026. Nepal Army/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Overview

  • The disaster began on Aug. 26 when a high‑altitude ice-and-rock collapse sent a fast, debris-rich flood down the Bhotekoshi–Trishuli corridor that has killed more than 1,350 people and left roughly 5,000 missing.
  • Rescue operations are now focused on three tunnel clusters — Chilime and Upper Trishuli 3A/3B — where the Nepal Army estimates about 121 people could be trapped inside interconnected tunnel networks.
  • Washed-out roads, buried tunnel entrances, thick silt and unstable ground are forcing crews to rely on helicopters, temporary bridges and specialist tunnel‑rescue equipment, which is slowing access and clearance.
  • Multiple countries have sent teams and gear, Australia deployed a disaster assistance response team and pledged $11 million, and at least several hundred foreign nationals are among the missing with dozens of Australians still unaccounted for.
  • Families are protesting for faster rescues as morgues and DNA services are overwhelmed, temporary burials are being used for now, and officials say the disaster has heightened calls for better glacier monitoring and climate‑resilient planning.