Rescuers were trying to find trapped workers in at least a dozen hydroelectric plant sites Monday after catastrophic flooding in Nepal and Tibet killed at least 900 peopleand left more than 4,700 missing.
Multiple foreign teams were assisting local rescuers to find workers in multiple tunnels at Nepal’s power plants on the rivers that flooded last Wednesday.
Mohan Kumar Dangi, president of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal, or IPPAN, said the floods damaged at least 12 hydropower projects across Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts and about 900 people were missing from the project sites.
Officials have previously offered varying estimates of the number trapped.
“We are working in search and rescue of the stranded people from hills, settlements and river areas,” said Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, Nepal’s army spokesman.
Nepal’s disaster agency said Monday that 903 deaths had been counted in that country, with 4,247 people, including 592 foreigners, missing.
As of Sunday, Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, and Chinese state media said 261 of the missing were foreigners, including over a hundred Nepalis.
The stations are powered by giant tunnels where people are now trapped
Workers shoveling mud from a flood-ravaged power station in Dhading, Nepal, told The Associated Press that the station is a key node for providing power to over 20,000 people in the region. The workers cleaning the power station said they hope that it is not rebuilt near the river.
Rescue efforts are focused on people trapped in the gigantic tunnels built for controlling the water flow to produce hydropower.
“The tunnels are built to access hydropower infrastructure and to divert water — an essential step to generate energy. These tunnels are big enough to drive trucks through,” said Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria who is currently based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. “There is enough place for people to take refuge safely inside and from what we understand they have managed to get oxygen to some of those stuck inside and are trying to rescue them now. It’s a race for time though as people need food and water.”
In the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project, in the hard-hit Rasuwa district, at least 576 were missing, Dangi said, adding that around 300 of them were believed to be trapped inside the project’s tunnel. Rescuers have been trying to find survivors for days, working through the rain.
Chinese media highlights government efforts to rebuild roads
On the Chinese side, rescue and recovery efforts included rebuilding the road leading to Gyirong Port at the border between China and Nepal.
Trucks carried giant rocks as workers worked on repaving a portion of the road, state broadcaster CCTV showed Monday, next to rapidly rushing waters, which have been made more powerful by rains in the past couple of days. The road is now under some 6.6 -9.8 feet of water, hampering rescuers’ ability to reach the border. The repaving effort was just a little over .62 miles from the border, CCTV said.
Although some rescue teams have managed to reach the border, that represented only a portion of the force.
Chinese state media coverage has focused largely on the official response, highlighting the deployment of firefighters, the People’s Liberation Army as well as the instructions from top leaders. Little is known about victims on the Chinese side.
Families are desperate for information about missing loved ones
Two days after the disaster, Maraval Nagappan traveled to Nepal to search for his son, who was among the missing. He visited rescue centers and morgues and went as far as 25 miles from where his son was believed to have been, but found no sign of him.
His son, Sathya Narayan had been leading a group of 49 Indian devotees who were returning from Mount Kailash — a sacred site in southwestern Tibet. The group has been missing since floodwaters swept through a Chinese immigration complex where they were waiting to cross into Nepal.
Nagappan, who owns the Chennai-based travel company that organized their pilgrimage, and said the group had been expected to complete immigration formalities and leave for Nepal within about two hours. Instead of making the crossing, they were caught in the flood, Nagappan said.
The pilgrimage had begun Aug. 14. “I haven’t heard from my son since then. I don’t know whether he is alive or dead,” he told AP, but he said he hadn’t given up on hearing from his son.
Surveillance footage showed water surging through the immigration complex at the border as people scrambled to escape. Nagappan said some of those seen fleeing were members of his son’s group and were identified by the clothes they were wearing.
Wednesday’s flash floods started after a glacial collapse high in the Himalayan region. Scientists who studied satellite images said bedrock underneath a glacier high in the Himalayan region had collapsed, taking part of the glacier with it. The rockfall was so extreme that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event.
The rocks and melted water then swelled the rivers in the valleys below, causing a torrent of water that swept buildings, bridges and earth downstream in Tibet and Nepal.
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