These men had a hellish escape from Nepal’s flooded hydro tunnels. They were the lucky ones

These Men Had a Hellish Escape from Nepal’s Flooded Tunnels

Qwenews.com – These men had a hellish escape from one of the deadliest natural disasters Nepal has faced in years. In a single night, glacial melt and torrential rain sent a wall of ice, silt, and shattered concrete cascading roughly 62 miles (100 km) downstream along the Trishuli river. Entire communities were buried. Hundreds of people were killed. More than 900 workers embedded deep inside hydropower tunnels carved into the Himalaya remain unaccounted for. For the small number who survived the initial inundation, the hours that followed were a desperate, six-hour crawl through rising black water toward an exit hundreds of meters away.

Surviving the Dark: Six Hours on a Tin Sheet

Ram Chandra was inside a tunnel on the Trishuli’s banks when the surge hit. Water, concrete fragments, and debris tore through the darkness with enough force to nearly sweep him off his feet. His survival came down to one reflex: he locked both hands onto a metal rung bolted into the tunnel ceiling and refused to let go.

“The water was rising and it was difficult to move my legs. If I had let go from that rung I would have fallen.”

He and a small cluster of colleagues were trapped hundreds of meters from any exit. To keep their feet from slipping on the submerged floor, they passed a tin sheet around the group, laying it down rung by rung as they inched forward. That crawl lasted six hours. By the time they reached the tunnel gate, they found one additional survivor already waiting there — seven men in total, stripped of their clothing by the torrent. Emerging into daylight, they confronted the full scale of the destruction: the river below still surging, its surface stained dark with debris and glacial ice, the mountains above having unleashed a wall of water that obliterated everything in its path.

The Rescue Effort and the Numbers

Of the workers caught in the tunnels, approximately 279 have been rescued or have managed to trudge their way out through mud- and silt-choked passages. The remainder are feared trapped. At the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant, search teams worked through the night into Sunday, boring holes into the tunnel structure to pump in air and lower food supplies, hoping to establish contact with anyone still alive inside.

A constant stream of military and civilian helicopters roared overhead in what appeared to be a ceaseless operation to extract survivors and recover the dead. The scale of the aerial effort underscored how vast the affected zone had become. For those still inside, every minute without contact deepened the fear that these men had a hellish ordeal no rescue could yet reach.

From Jumla: A Community’s Loss

Many of the rescued workers trace their origins to Jumla, a district in far-western Nepal where maize terraces cling to precipitous mountainsides and village life runs on tight-knit kinship networks. The region feels a world away from the industrial tunnels where the disaster struck, yet its people had poured into those tunnels in search of wages. Roughly fifteen rescued workers from the area spoke together, and every single one had lost a relative or close friend in the flooding. Most had also lost their clothing to the torrent and stood in borrowed trousers, shirts, and sandals lent by villagers when they scrambled to safety.

Madan Singh Budha had just come off the night shift at Upper Trishuli tunnel number two when the deluge hit. He saw water pouring outside and began running up the hillside.

“The hill was rocky, with grass growing in between. We used that grass to hold on to as we climbed.”

He was later brought down from the disaster zone by helicopter on Sunday. Those who could not climb were swept away.

A Survivor’s Arithmetic

Bhakti Ram Bohara, another survivor, described himself as part of a small minority who made it out. He estimated that roughly 1,000 people were working across his project and adjacent sites at the time of the flood. Only around 100 had emerged alive. Among the missing was his brother-in-law — a man who had worked on the same team, spending weeks at a time away from family and sending earnings back to their home village.

“His wife is my sister, and she is pregnant.”

He said the words, then broke down into tears.

The Guide Who Would Not Sleep

Amar Bista was not employed at the tunnels. He is a tour guide. But when word of the catastrophe reached him, he rushed into action because dozens of his own family members and friends worked at the site. Identifying who was missing, who was safe, and then physically bringing people out proved a near-impossible task. He had not slept in four days. Standing with the group he had helped save, he gestured to the men standing silently around him and said simply that these men had a hellish few days behind them — and that the worst was still ahead for the families waiting at home.

FAQ: What You Need to Know

Where did the flooding occur? The disaster struck along the Trishuli river in central Nepal, affecting roughly 62 miles (100 km) of downstream communities and multiple hydropower tunnel sites, including the Trishuli 3A plant and Upper Trishuli tunnels.

How many workers are missing? More than 900 workers embedded in hydropower tunnels remain unaccounted for as of the latest reports. Approximately 279 have been rescued or self-extracted.

What is the rescue operation doing? Search teams are boring holes into tunnel structures to pump in air and lower food. Military and civilian helicopters are conducting continuous extraction and recovery flights. Ground teams are clearing silt-choked passages.

Where do most of the affected workers come from? A significant number trace their origins to Jumla district in far-western Nepal, a region where families depend on remittances sent home by workers in hydropower projects.

Is the situation still developing? Yes. Rescue and search operations continued through Sunday and beyond, with conditions in the tunnels deteriorating as water levels and silt accumulation make access increasingly difficult.