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Nepali Army personnel on Friday pulled mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah and mechanical supervisor Kabir Maharjan alive from a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower station, nine days after a massive flood swept through the Trishuli River valley. Sah had chosen to stay behind to help colleagues after learning of the approaching deluge, later telling rescuers he recited mantras to maintain hope while trapped in darkness. He indicated that three or four other workers may remain alive farther inside the tunnel, with possibly more deeper in the network. Footage from the site showed one survivor being carried out on a rescuer’s back, his face caked in mud, before both men were airlifted to an army hospital in Kathmandu.
A Reuters dispatch detailed how the disaster began when a mountain gave way above the hydropower project, sending ice, rock and debris hurtling downstream. The force destroyed multiple facilities and buried tunnel entrances, complicating access for rescue teams that took nearly six days to reach some sites. According to the Nepal Electricity Authority, at least 46 people may be trapped at the Rasuwagadhi plant alone while the Independent Power Producers’ Association estimated eight at Chilime.
More than 1,200 people died in the deluge across Nepal with over 4,200 still missing when combined with figures from Tibet, a Reuters tally showed.[[1]](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/two-people-pulled-alive-nepal-hydropower-tunnel-2026-09-04/) The floods wiped out roughly 10 percent of Nepal’s power generation capacity after tearing through 14 hydropower projects clustered along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers. A New York Times report placed the number of unaccounted-for hydropower workers at more than 900, part of a broader total exceeding 1,900 missing from the sector and surrounding communities.[[2]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/world/asia/nepals-hydropower-industry-was-booming-now-900-workers-are-missing.html)
An informal WhatsApp group of engineers has guided much of the tunnel rescue work, providing real-time technical advice to teams on the ground as they clear debris and pump oxygen into potential cavities. Reuters interviews with government officials, military personnel and survivors described coordinated efforts that finally reached the Upper Trishuli 3A tunnel on Friday, yielding the first confirmed extractions from the hydropower sites. A small group had escaped one tunnel in the initial hours after the flood by holding hands and following a single flashlight through wreckage and bodies.
Dhan Bahadur Tamang, a 32-year-old driver at the project, recounted to Reuters sensing a sudden air pressure change before dust rose under the tunnel lights. “Something was coming,” he remembered, after which the group navigated near-complete darkness, water and debris. “It was a long, exhausting fight through darkness, water, wreckage, and bodies,” Tamang stated, adding that the burst of daylight upon escape felt unreal before locals provided dry clothes amid slow follow-up operations hampered by fog.[[3]](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/nepali-survivor-recounts-fight-through-darkness-escape-flood-hit-tunnel-2026-09-03/)
Australian geologist and engineer Arnold Dix, advising the Nepali authorities, described multiple challenges including buried entrances and the risk of further collapses at the Trishuli 3A site. A New York Times account of the operation noted that rescuers heard additional voices inside the tunnel after the first two survivors emerged, raising hopes that others might still be found alive. International assistance has included tunnel experts from India and China, alongside equipment deliveries, as officials assess damage estimated in the billions of dollars.[[4]](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/world/asia/nepal-flood-tunnel-rescue-operation.html)
Survivors from nearby villages told The New York Times of waves combining boulders, sand and sludge that engulfed multi-story buildings within seconds after a warning call around 9:10 a.m. local time on the day of the flood. One police officer who sustained chest injuries waited amid debris for more than a day before helicopter evacuation. The scale of the event, which also affected pilgrims and foreign nationals, has prompted Nepal to seek further technical aid for DNA identification of decomposed remains and infrastructure restoration.
