Nepalese rescue teams were searching, on Monday, for more than 100 workers from hydropower plants who were feared to be trapped in tunnels, days after four miraculous rescues from the rubble of floods that devastated towns and villages on the Himalayan border with China.
The rescues brought a glimmer of hope as Nepal marked the 13th day after the disaster — traditionally the last day of mourning in Hindu rites — for the hundreds of dead in the floods.
About 121 of the 900 people missing at the hydroelectric projects could be trapped in these tunnels, the army rescue teams said. Others may have been working at other sites within the plants, but not inside the vast network of tunnels.
Among those the rescue teams were trying to locate on Monday were four of the six people missing at the Chilime hydropower project in the Rasuwa district, which was hard-hit, and who could still be alive, said to Reuters Shri Ram Neupane, a parliamentarian involved in the rescue efforts.
Authorities obtained specialized equipment and identified the techniques required for the operation at Chilime, Neupane said. The rescue teams believe that there may be survivors trapped inside the tunnels, as many of them have air pockets, as well as spaces and rooms where people could shelter, they said last week.
In recent days, search teams in Nepal have rescued four people, including a Chinese citizen who was pulled from a tunnel on Saturday. The others were two hydroelectric plant workers rescued from another tunnel on Friday and a Nepali woman rescued from her house buried by the landslide on Saturday.
Government agencies in the Hindu-majority country and foreign diplomatic representations abroad will hoist the national flag at half-mast to mark the 13th day after death, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The day is considered the last day of mourning by the faithful, who observe it with rituals and offerings of food.
The disaster was triggered on August 26, when a huge mass of mud and rocks, following the collapse of part of a glacier, tumbled into a river along the Nepal-Tibet border in China. The resulting floods swept away towns and villages and buried roads and highways under mud and debris.
At least 1,380 people died in the landslide and more than 5,500 are missing in Nepal and Tibet.
Nepal has appealed to the international community for urgent supplies, including high-capacity drones, Bailey bridges, DNA test kits, tunnel rescue suits, and items for epidemic prevention, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
CHINA SAYS IT WILL SHARE INFORMATION IMMEDIATELY
Chinese authorities said on Sunday that rescue teams had recovered more than 12 more bodies, while the search for hundreds of people still missing in Tibet continued. Many of the missing are Indians or of Indian origin who were in the region to visit Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash in Tibet, sacred Hindu pilgrimage sites.
“The Chinese side will continue to spare no effort to conduct search and rescue operations and handle post-disaster issues,” said Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press briefing.
China has faced pressure from some families of missing foreign tourists in Tibet, who say they have faced difficulties obtaining information about their missing relatives.
Mao said Beijing would promptly release “up-to-date information on the disaster situation and rescue activities.” On Sunday, China invited, for the first time, journalists from eight foreign media outlets, including Reuters, to visit the main affected areas.
With the search teams still looking for survivors, the Nepal government did not plan any large-scale event for the last day of mourning.
“There are no organized government programs, as the rescue and search operations are still ongoing in the flood-affected areas,” Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) told Reuters.
President Ram Chandra Paudel, the ceremonial head of state, was visiting the flood-affected areas on Monday and was to assess the damage caused by the disaster, his aide said.
Security officers at Nuwakot District Prison, one of the two most affected districts, evacuated 923 inmates to a higher building before the floodwaters breached the building where they were, located on low-lying ground, on August 26, according to Prime Minister Balendra Shah in a post on social media.
The authorities also captured 50 prisoners who had broken through the prison wall and gates when the flood began and had fled only 100 meters, Shah said on Monday.
