Staff Reports
Rescue crews pulled people from the wreckage this week after parts of Nepal were swept away by a wall of water, ice and mud. Video shows two men hauled from a mud-choked hydropower tunnel about 740 feet in, and a woman dug out of a house and airlifted to Kathmandu. These are small miracles in a catastrophe that has already killed and left thousands missing — and they raise hard questions about planning, safety and who pays when nature and man-made projects collide.
What happened: dramatic tunnel and house rescues
Officials and army spokesmen say joint Nepali and international teams found and pulled two workers from deep inside a hydropower tunnel. One survivor told rescuers he “could not believe they found him” after shouting for help for days. In a separate operation, crews found a woman buried in mud inside a home in Nuwakot, gave her water and wrapped her in clean towels before airlifting her to medical care. Videos released by authorities show rescuers hauling people from mud-clogged openings and loading them into helicopters for urgent treatment.
Scale of the disaster and the rescue effort
This wasn’t a simple flash flood. Reports say a glacier collapse in the headwaters triggered “tsunami-like” surges down the Trishuli and Bhotekoshi river corridors, destroying homes and badly damaging hydropower sites. Hundreds of hydropower workers are still unaccounted for across a dozen projects, and tunnels packed with debris have forced rescuers to use heavy machinery and helicopters in dangerous, cramped conditions. The United Nations has launched a nearly $50 million appeal for relief and warns winter will make the situation worse.
Responsibility, planning and blunt questions for leaders
Here’s where a column like this gets unpopular: when giant projects are built in volatile mountain valleys, someone ought to ask whether risk planning kept up with construction. Hydropower is important, but putting workers and communities in the direct line of a mountain river without fail-safe evacuation plans is asking for headlines like this. Rescue teams deserve praise for saving lives under brutal conditions, but officials and the companies that built and ran these projects must be pressed on safety standards, tunnel design and emergency readiness.
For now, the focus must be on saving lives and getting the survivors the care they need. But once the helicopters are grounded and the cameras leave, Nepali leaders and international partners should be ready for tough audits, better engineering and real plans to protect workers and residents. Hope and heroism carried people through this week. Let’s make sure planning and accountability carry them through the next one.
