Nepal flood rescuers find two alive at Trishuli project

Nepal flood rescuers found two hydropower workers alive after nine days, raising hopes in a disaster with 1,287 deaths reported.

The men were pulled Friday from a tunnel linked to the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, Nepali authorities said. Officials and rescue workers believe the August 26 glacier collapse on the upper Trishuli River trapped at least 900 people in tunnels serving six hydropower projects.

Two workers reach Kathmandu

The rescued workers were identified as Kabir Maharjan and Sanjay Sah, who were taken to an army hospital in Kathmandu. A hospital source said both men were in intensive care with stable vital signs; an aide to the energy minister said Maharjan could not move his hands or legs, while Sah’s injuries were not considered critical.

Videos released by Nepali authorities showed Maharjan being lifted from a hole and placed on a stretcher. Sah, a mechanical foreman, was carried out with mud on his face before army doctors put an oxygen mask on him and checked him inside a rescue tent.

Sah said he had remained in a control room to help colleagues leave after hearing that the disaster was approaching. “I was in the control room, so my responsibility was to save everyone's lives. When there was such a big accident, it was not right for me to run away,” he said in a recording shared by Nepali authorities.

Trishuli tunnels drive search

Sah told rescuers he recited mantras while trapped and had been in contact with three or four other people in the tunnel. He also said others might still be alive farther inside, a claim rescuers had not confirmed as operations continued around Upper Trishuli 3A.

The Nepali Army said more search and rescue work was under way at the project. The army and police are leading the response, with specialists from India, South Korea and China assisting alongside helicopters, heavy machinery and a WhatsApp group of experts advising crews at the hydropower sites.

Nepal’s disaster management authority said Friday that at least 1,287 people had died in floods that swept through towns and villages near the border with China’s Tibet. More than 5,080 people remained missing in Nepal, while China reported 21 deaths and 541 people missing in Tibet.

Nepal said Thursday that at least 583 foreign nationals were missing, many of them pilgrims and trekkers. Australian disaster response specialists left for Nepal on Friday after the government there said it had serious concerns for 36 missing citizens.

Losses reach $2.56 billion

Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, said property, housing and infrastructure losses were estimated at 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees, or $2.56 billion. He has said Nepal will need to rebuild about 20,000 homes in flood-hit areas, including at least 7,500 that were destroyed.

A senior official at one of Nepal’s leading insurers said commercial insurance losses could exceed $132.3 million, with hydropower projects expected to account for most claims. If that estimate holds, insurers and project developers face a claims cycle concentrated in energy assets rather than household damage alone.

If crews can keep access open inside the tunnels, the immediate effect would be a narrower search area and a better chance of finding survivors near the Upper Trishuli 3A site. If debris, flooding or structural damage blocks deeper sections, the operation is likely to shift toward recovery and rebuilding, leaving Nepal with a heavier fiscal burden, project owners with longer outages, and the hydropower sector facing closer scrutiny of tunnel safety in glacier-fed valleys.