Nepal floods chased worker from tunnel as hundreds remain trapped

In Nepal news from the devastating Nepal-Tibet flash floods, hydropower engineer Pemba Dundu Tamang fled for 20 minutes as Trishuli River water smashed into his tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3B project. Hundreds of workers remain missing or trapped underground as rescuers blast through debris at 12 damaged hydropower sites.

The catastrophic deluge on Wednesday swept ice, rock, mud and debris down the Trishuli River, killing more than 1,000 people across Nepal and Tibet and leaving more than 4,000 missing, according to officials. For labourers carving tunnels along the river, the disaster struck without warning.

Key Takeaways

• Hydropower worker Pemba Dundu Tamang escaped a flooded tunnel after river water chased him uphill for roughly 20 minutes at the Upper Trishuli 3B site in Nuwakot.
• Rescue teams are targeting 12 damaged hydropower projects where hundreds of the roughly 900 missing workers may be trapped in tunnels with falling oxygen levels.
• Nepal's death toll has exceeded 1,000, with about 4,000 people still unaccounted for across the border region.
• Satellite data suggests signs of glacier instability appeared days before the disaster, raising questions about whether early warnings could have saved lives downstream.
• Families worldwide, including in Wales, are waiting for news as Nepal's army pumps air into tunnels and blasts through mud-filled passages.

What happened inside the hydropower tunnel?

Pemba Dundu Tamang told the BBC that his team of about 30 was lining concrete inside a tunnel when a sudden gust of air sent plywood and heavy machinery flying. Houses outside had already been swept away.

"I ran towards the tunnel entrance," Tamang said. "The water was chasing behind me and I was running ahead of it." His colleague Itha Ghale said the blast of air nearly knocked them over as they sprinted uphill.

Tamang estimates 50 to 60 workers escaped alongside him. He sheltered in Shanti Bazar for two days before the army rescued him. Six relatives died when their riverside home was destroyed; only his wife, son and one nephew survived.

How many workers are still trapped?

Nepal's disaster management authority says more than 900 hydropower workers are missing from projects damaged across Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. About 500 are thought to be trapped in tunnels built to control water flow, according to The Guardian.

Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said debris deposits pose a major challenge. Engineers rescued 119 people on Tuesday and about 250 from the Upper Trishuli project over the weekend, while controlled blasting continues to reach 42 workers still thought to be missing there.

Experts warn survival chances diminish as oxygen falls inside buried tunnels. Rescuers from Nepal, India and China are using excavators, pumps and life-detection equipment across affected sites, though operations have been suspended repeatedly because of weather and flood risks.

Why are families still waiting for answers?

The human cost extends far beyond the river valley. Jyoti Upadhyay in Ceredigion, Wales, told the BBC she has "lost hope" for Jit Bahadur Chaudhary, a family friend who was working as a driver at Trishuli 3B when floods hit.

Phone signals failed within 20 minutes, and it took three days to learn anything about the site, where buildings sit under metres of mud. Upadhyay said Chaudhary was unlikely to have been deep in the tunnel network, and the family fears the first wave washed him away.

For survivors like Ghale, who lost eight family members including his mother and eldest daughter, the scale of loss is staggering. Similar stories of uncertainty and grief are drawing global attention — a pattern explored across our True Crime & Unsolved Mysteries coverage when mass disasters leave hundreds unaccounted for.

Could early warnings have prevented more deaths?

A report cited by the BBC found satellite images showed the glacier surface moving faster, meltwater turning brown and a crack developing in surrounding rock in the days before the avalanche. Scientists from the Asian Mountain Academic Alliance, the Stimson Centre and China's Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment say these were possible signs of growing instability.

While the avalanche moved too fast to warn those nearest it, experts believe a comprehensive warning system could have saved lives further downstream, where floodwaters took 10 minutes or more to arrive. The disaster knocked roughly 700 megawatts — about 10% of Nepal's power capacity — offline, underscoring how glacier-driven floods threaten both lives and critical infrastructure.