Ten days after devastating flash floods struck Nepal, rescuers pulled a Chinese national alive from a hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa. The Aug. 26 disaster, triggered by a glacial collapse, has killed more than 1,300 people across the region, leaving nearly 4,900 missing while search teams battle thick mud and debris.
Families clinging to hope received a dramatic boost when the Nepali army pulled Lu Haitao from inside a 225-meter tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project. The rescue broke a tense week of waiting for relatives who had been scouring translated foreign reports and mutual aid groups for updates.
The Dramatic Rescue at Upper Trishuli-1
Lu recalled climbing to the highest point inside the underground passage and initially thinking the rescue whistles were figments of his imagination, according to audio shared by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Emergency personnel initially struggled to hear his shouts toward their searchlights.
“When they shone before my eyes, I couldn’t believe it. When they shone before my eyes, I no longer shouted. I had lost hope.”
Lu Haitao, survivor
Authorities reported that Lu displayed no visible injuries and maintained stable vitals, though he showed signs of mild hypothermia. Footage shared by the Nepali army showed an exhausted, disoriented man caked in dust and mud receiving emergency medical attention aboard a helicopter before being transported to an army hospital.
Relief Across Borders for Families of the Missing
Back in China, news of the survival brought profound relief to Lu’s relatives. His sister, Lu Hairong, told Red Star News that she received word of the extraction before it hit public feeds, but only fully believed it after seeing his picture published in news reports. She described the survival as a stroke of sheer luck amid the misfortune
for her 49-year-old brother, a Henan province native who had traveled abroad for work in February for the first time.
Meanwhile, at the Maithili Barrack in Nepal’s Nuwakot district, walls filled with posters depict other missing workers. Among them is Ishwor Poudel, a worker at the Hakubesi Hydroelectric Project tunnel whose brother, Krishna, last spoke to him on Aug. 26 shortly before the floodwaters roared down the valley.
“I spoke to him at 7:30 a.m. before he went into the tunnel for work. Around 11:30 a.m., after the floods came down, I finally got through and he told me: ‘I’m trapped inside the tunnel.'”
Krishna Poudel, brother of missing worker
Although direct contact ceased that morning, escaping colleagues informed the family that Ishwor was driving a vehicle inside and that voices of roughly 200 to 300 people could be heard shouting from the interior.
Tunnel Operations and International Expertise
The Aug. 26 disaster damaged at least 12 hydropower projects across Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts with a combined capacity of 670 megawatts, according to Mohan Kumar Dangi, president of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal. Dangi noted that while projects undergo risk assessments prior to construction, the flash flooding was something unimaginable
.
Australian engineer and geologist Arnold Dix, invited by Nepali authorities to advise on operations at the Trishuli 3A power station where two other workers—Sanjay Shah and Kabir Maharajan—were pulled out alive on Friday, described the ongoing search as an immense logistical hurdle.
“We’ve found two people alive, so that gives us hope. After more than a week, everyone’s exhausted, but this spurs us on to try even harder and it now also gives us focus for how we might approach other rescues in other locations. We now have proof that people can survive this long.”
Arnold Dix, Australian engineer and geologist
Rescuers at Trishuli 3A faced tunnels blocked by vehicle-sized rocks, requiring explosives, and underground spaces filled with water and sludge. Drone pilot Manish Maharjan, volunteering with the Nepalese army, observed that certain subterranean corridors were filled with mud like toothpaste in a tube
.
Stretched Rescue Capacity and Ongoing Search Efforts
The catastrophe has tested national response frameworks. Anil Pokhrel, a disaster risk reduction expert and former head of Nepal’s disaster authority, pointed out that rescuers lost valuable time locating the tunnel’s exact entry point and coordinates and suffered from a shortage of heavy equipment and adequately trained personnel.
“Harsh and remote locations with inclement weather worsened the situation. Also, we didn’t have adequately trained human resources to undertake such operations.”
Anil Pokhrel, disaster risk reduction expert
Pokhrel added that while Nepal has extensive experience in tunnel design and construction, it is not adequately prepared for rescue operations.
International aid continues to arrive to supplement local efforts. Thirty-eight Australian specialists are currently on the ground, including a 15-person team providing specialist drone services and federal police disaster victim identification experts. Official figures from Nepal’s disaster management agency place confirmed fatalities at 1,294, with 5,053 people remaining missing, including 583 foreign nationals. Across the border in Tibet, Chinese state media reported 31 deaths and 531 missing individuals.
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