More than a week after catastrophic flooding tore through Nepal’s Himalayan valleys, the country’s most desperate rescue effort is taking place somewhere few people can see.
Deep inside damaged hydropower tunnels, rescue teams are digging through thick mud, broken rock and twisted debris in the hope that workers may still be alive.
Above ground, the scale of the disaster is already overwhelming.
More than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead. Thousands remain missing. Entire communities have been buried or swept away, roads and bridges have disappeared, and some of Nepal’s biggest hydropower projects have been left buried beneath mud and wreckage.
But underground, the crisis is different.
Every blocked tunnel represents a question rescuers cannot yet answer: is there still breathable air inside? Is there clean water? Did workers find pockets of safety before the flood filled the passageways?
And after several extraordinary rescues, those questions have become even more urgent.
Workers Pulled Out Alive After Nine and Ten Days
For families waiting outside damaged hydropower sites, hope has been strengthened by a series of remarkable rescues.
Two Nepali workers were pulled alive from a tunnel nine days after the flooding. A day later, Chinese worker Lu Haitao was rescued from another tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project.
Lu had survived inside a tunnel around 225 meters long before rescuers finally reached him.
He was suffering from mild hypothermia but had no obvious serious injuries and was taken to an army hospital for treatment.
His rescue meant that three workers had been brought out alive from the Trishuli hydropower tunnel system after spending more than a week underground.
Those rescues changed the emotional equation for families of the missing.
After so many days, every survivor proves that others may still be alive.
But rescuers also know that time is running out.
Around 900 Hydropower Workers Remain Missing
One of the most alarming aspects of the disaster is the number of workers missing from Nepal’s hydropower projects.
Officials and industry representatives have said around 900 workers remain unaccounted for across roughly a dozen hydropower sites.
About 500 are believed to have been inside tunnels when the floods struck.
The tunnels were designed for hydropower construction and operation, not as emergency shelters.
When enormous quantities of mud, rocks and water entered the sites, exits became blocked and access routes were destroyed.
That has created an unusually difficult rescue environment.
Teams are not simply looking through collapsed buildings or open terrain. They must enter long underground passages where visibility can be poor, oxygen levels uncertain and the risk of further collapse constantly present.
Mud Is Turning Rescue Into Excavation
The biggest obstacle is not just water.
It is mud.
Floodwaters carried huge amounts of sediment, rock and debris into tunnels and valleys, filling passageways with material that can be extremely difficult to remove.
Heavy machinery cannot always reach the tunnel entrances because roads themselves have been destroyed.
Even where excavators are available, rescuers must work carefully.
Removing debris too aggressively could destabilize damaged structures or endanger anyone still alive inside.
In some areas, teams have had to manually clear obstructions or use controlled blasting to create access.
The result is painfully slow progress in a situation where every hour matters.
Why People Can Sometimes Survive Underground for Days
Survival inside a flooded or blocked tunnel depends heavily on the conditions created by the disaster.
If workers managed to reach higher sections or enclosed spaces where floodwater did not completely enter, pockets of air could remain available.
Access to water can also become decisive.
A person may survive for an extended period without food, but dehydration and lack of breathable oxygen are much more immediate threats.
Temperature is another concern.
The Himalayan environment can become extremely cold, particularly underground, increasing the risk of hypothermia.
The recent rescues demonstrate that apparently impossible survival periods are still possible when conditions align.
That is why teams have continued searching even after more than a week.
Technology Is Being Sent Where Humans Cannot Go
Rescuers are also using technology to search areas that remain too dangerous or inaccessible for people.
Drones have been flown into tunnels and across isolated areas to look for survivors.
One drone operator working with rescue teams has used devices equipped with cameras and even speakers, allowing searchers to send sound into places they cannot physically reach.
Elsewhere, experts have been advising rescuers remotely as teams attempt to understand damaged tunnel layouts and identify possible locations where workers could have survived.
The effort shows how complex the operation has become.
This is no longer simply a conventional flood rescue.
It combines underground rescue, engineering, excavation, aviation, medicine and remote sensing, often in terrain where basic access remains difficult.
Nepal Has Mobilized Thousands of Troops
More than 9,200 Nepalese army personnel have been deployed as part of the wider disaster response.
Their responsibilities extend far beyond the hydropower tunnels.
Teams are recovering bodies, clearing roads, rebuilding temporary crossings, delivering relief supplies and attempting to reach communities isolated by landslides and washed-out bridges.
Helicopters have become essential in areas where roads no longer exist.
Temporary bridges and even makeshift ziplines are being used to reconnect communities divided by damaged rivers and infrastructure.
International assistance has also expanded, with specialists and support arriving from countries including India, China and South Korea.
The Numbers Are Still Rising
The flood disaster began on August 26 after what authorities believe was a glacier collapse high in the Himalayan region.
The resulting torrent rushed through river valleys with extraordinary force.
By September 5, at least 1,344 people had been confirmed dead in Nepal, while 4,887 remained missing, according to Reuters.
Hundreds of foreign nationals are among those unaccounted for.
In neighboring Tibet, Chinese authorities have also reported deaths and missing people connected to the same wider disaster.
The final toll could therefore rise significantly.
Search teams are still entering previously inaccessible areas, and entire communities remain buried under enormous quantities of debris.
The Disaster Has Exposed Nepal’s Hydropower Vulnerability
There is another story emerging from the damaged tunnels.
Nepal has invested heavily in hydropower as a cornerstone of its economic and energy strategy.
Mountain rivers provide enormous electricity-generating potential, and new dams, tunnels and power stations are central to the country’s development plans.
But those same projects often sit inside some of the most geologically vulnerable terrain in the world.
Hydropower facilities require tunnels, roads, transmission systems and large workforces in narrow Himalayan valleys.
When extreme floods or landslides strike those valleys, workers can become trapped precisely because the infrastructure is underground.
The disaster has therefore raised uncomfortable questions about whether emergency planning has kept pace with Nepal’s rapid hydropower expansion.
Rescue Capability May Need to Catch Up With Construction
Experts have pointed to a specific weakness.
Nepal has developed substantial expertise in constructing tunnels.
It has far less experience conducting large-scale emergency rescues inside them.
That distinction matters.
Building a tunnel requires engineering knowledge, machinery and workers.
Rescuing hundreds of people from damaged tunnels after a catastrophic flood requires specialized equipment, emergency ventilation, communications systems, underground mapping and highly trained rescue personnel.
The latest disaster suggests that those capabilities may need far greater investment.
As Nepal continues expanding hydropower, tunnel safety may have to become as important as tunnel construction itself.
Climate Change Is Adding Another Layer of Risk
The suspected glacier collapse behind the flooding has also intensified discussion about climate change in the Himalayas.
Rising temperatures are altering glaciers and high-altitude landscapes across the region.
Scientists have repeatedly warned that warming can increase risks associated with unstable ice, glacial lakes and sudden floods.
For countries such as Nepal, the consequences are particularly serious because people, roads and energy infrastructure are often concentrated in narrow river valleys below those mountains.
A disaster beginning high above a settlement can reach populated areas extremely quickly.
Recent years have brought repeated reminders of that vulnerability across the Himalayan region.
A Country Must Rebuild While It Is Still Searching
Even while rescue operations continue, Nepal is already confronting an enormous reconstruction challenge.
Authorities estimate that around 20,000 homes will need to be rebuilt.
The floods also generated roughly 2.2 million tons of debris, according to Reuters.
Before many communities can begin rebuilding, roads must be cleared, unstable land assessed and essential infrastructure restored.
That process could take years.
Yet families waiting outside hydropower sites are thinking about something much more immediate.
They are waiting for another sound from underground.
Another signal.
Another survivor.
The Tunnels Have Become the Symbol of Nepal’s Disaster
The rising death toll tells one part of Nepal’s tragedy.
The tunnels tell another.
They represent hundreds of people whose fate is still unknown, but they also represent the possibility that survival can continue far longer than rescuers initially imagine.
Every worker pulled alive from the darkness resets expectations.
It gives another family reason to keep waiting.
It gives rescue teams another reason to keep digging.
And it turns what might otherwise become a recovery operation back into a rescue mission.
Nepal will eventually have to investigate why so many workers became vulnerable, whether hydropower projects were sufficiently prepared for extreme disasters and how tunnel rescue capabilities can be strengthened.
Those questions matter enormously.
But for now, the priority remains much simpler.
Behind walls of mud and rock, hundreds of workers may still be waiting.
And after survivors emerged alive nine and ten days after the flood, rescuers have been given the most powerful reason possible not to stop searching.