Nepali rescuers faced challenging conditions on Sunday as search operations after catastrophic floods entered a 12th day, buoyed by the extraordinary rescues of four survivors.
The glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border killed at least 1,385 people and left more than 5,500 missing across the two countries.
Rescuers found two more people alive on Saturday, joining two saved the day before in what have been described as miraculous tales of survival.
Three of those have been found in hydropower tunnels where the government initially said it believed more than 100 workers could be alive.
“Search and rescue is going on at the tunnels despite geography, adverse weather and lack of connectivity,” Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha told AFP.
Rescue workers were experiencing “multiple challenges”, he said. The wall of icy water and debris tore through mountain districts on August 26, destroying roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
The United Nations chief in Nepal issued an emotional plea for aid, saying survivors of the catastrophic flooding had seen their lives transformed in just “one to two minutes”.
“You lose your home, you lose your livelihood, you lose your loved one and you lose the breadwinner of your family,” UN Resident Coordinator Lila Pieters Yahia said on Sunday.
On Saturday, rescuers pulled a Chinese man alive from deep inside a hydropower tunnel, and a 64-year-old Nepali woman, Chandrika Shrestha, from her mud-covered home. Prime Minister Balendra Shah said Shrestha’s rescue had “given hope to the entire nation”.
A day earlier, two Nepali hydropower workers were rescued at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, where searches continue alongside multiple other sites, with at least 12 hydropower projects affected.
Other examples of remarkable fortitude have emerged from Nepal, including Rajendra Dawadi, a school principal who quickly ordered an evacuation as the torrent approached, saving hundreds of students’ lives. “If the information was wrong, we would lose a day of schooling,” he told AFP. “But if it was true, we were going to lose our lives.”
The toll from the disaster in Tibet has risen from 31 to 43, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday. A further 519 people are missing, it said.
