How two men were rescued from a flood-stricken Nepali power plant
CNN
By Bhadra Sharma, Lex Harvey, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN
Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) — Two people have been rescued from a tunnel in Nepal and voices have been heard, nine days after massive flash floods and landslides hit the Nepal-China border trapping 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 two men were pulled in quick succession 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.
Here’s a look at what we know – and don’t know – so far.
What happened when they found the men?
Video showed about a dozen rescuers pulling a man from a small hole in the ground and clapping as he reached safety.
“Rescuers heard voices,” Bipin Regmi, police chief in the flood-hit district of Nuwakot told CNN.
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.
“Don’t panic, we are rescuing you,” emergency workers said after they heard the voices 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.
How did the miraculous rescue unfold?
Friday’s rescue follows days of arduous work. The Trishuli 3A power station was unrecognizable after the flood. Rescuers didn’t initially 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.
Heavy machinery was used to haul away mud and sludge around the hydropower station, Lt. Col. Ganga Baral, of the Nepali Army previously said.
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 the survivors. Rescuers had to be careful as they got closer to ensure no further casualties, Dix said. “We can’t do this with machines, we do this by hand.”
Who are the survivors and where are they now?
The Nepal Electricity Authority named the two men who were rescued alive as 30-year-old Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman from Saptari district in eastern Nepal, and Kabir Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor from Kathmandu.
Following their incredible rescue, the men were airlifted away for emergency medical attention. Both are being treated at a military hospital in Kathmandu, according to the Nepali Prime Minister’s Office.
Sah is in stable condition, while Maharjan is in critical condition and under intensive care, it added.
In a video seen online, Sah shed some light on his ordeal. In the clip, where he is lying under a blanket and wearing an oxygen mask, he recalled it took some time to get others in the tunnel to evacuate and that he didn’t have enough time to escape himself.
Sah said usually there would only a handful of people in the area but there were 40 to 45 people present when disaster struck. He did not say why there were more people.
“It was my responsibility to save everyone’s life,” he said.
While inside the tunnel, Sah said he kept his spirits up by chanting Hindu mantras.
What’s it like inside the tunnels where the search continues?
Hopes had been fading for the safe rescue of workers trapped at the plants that run along Nepal’s Trishuli River – among them foreign nationals 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, with thousands more still missing.
Rescuers are facing difficult conditions as they search for more survivors 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.
Footage obtained earlier this week by a CNN team on the ground offered a glimpse inside these intricate networks built to harness Nepal’s rivers and fuel its booming hydropower industry.
One video 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.
Some of those rescued told CNN the tunnels were “filled with bodies” and the flood stripped them of everything they had, including their clothes.
Are there any more survivors?
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.
The first man who was rescued Friday said he thought there might still be some people trapped inside. “I don’t think everyone was able to escape. The tunnel is very long,” Sah said.
Earlier this week, Parikshit Mehra, an Indian army colonel, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who reported from the Trishuli 3A site, 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 told CNN.
“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.”
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CNN’s Hanako Montgomery, Daniel Campisi, Hilary Whiteman, Kathleen Magramo, Kosh Koirala and Satish Cheney contributed reporting.
