Two people rescued from hydropower tunnel in Nepal
Two people have been rescued from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal, a dramatic breakthrough more than a week after catastrophic floods hit the country’s border with China.
Two people rescued from hydropower tunnel in Nepal
1:51
Today’s miraculous rescues are a rare bright spot in what has been a devastating nine days for Nepal and China.
Last Wednesday, just after 8:30 a.m. Nepal time, a large piece of glacier near the countries’ border detached from a mountainside. That glacial collapse triggered a massive landslide and catastrophic flash flooding in both countries.
Entire communities were swept away without warning. Homes, schools, playgrounds, and other markers of life were reduced to a gushing river of “liquid cement.”
Hundreds of people were killed, and thousands more were left missing, many of them foreigners who had visited the Himalayas for a once-in-a-lifetime religious pilgrimage.
In the long nine days since the disaster, authorities have been contending with communication blackouts, road blockages and the threat of further floods, as they try to rescue survivors and recover the bodies of victims.
While thousands of people have been rescued so far, hundreds have been found dead. With morgues at capacity, Nepali authorities were forced to bury hundreds of bodies in a mass grave.
The plight of the nearly 1,000 workers trapped in Nepal’s vast system of hydropower tunnels added a new element of terror and challenge for rescuers, with specialized teams coming in to assist Nepali authorities with the daunting rescue.
Despite a colossal effort, as the days ticked on with no sign of life inside the muddy darkness, hopes had dimmed for recovering the workers alive.
Then, this morning, rescuers heard voices.