These men had a hellish escape from Nepal’s flooded hydro tunnels. They were the lucky ones

Hellish Escape from Nepal’s Flooded Tunnels

Activelifezero.com – These men had a hellish escape from a subterranean passage carved into the Himalayan foothills. A wall of black water, shattered concrete, and tumbling debris tore through the darkness, and for six hours the workers inside had nothing but a single metal rung above their heads to keep them from being swept into the abyss. What followed became one of the most harrowing mass-rescue operations in Nepal’s recent history — and for those who made it out, a razor-thin margin between life and certain death.

The deluge struck along the Trishuli river, one of the country’s most powerful waterways, unleashing a torrent that raced roughly 62 miles (100 km) downstream. Entire communities were buried under mud, ice, and silt. Hundreds were killed outright. The scale of destruction made it the worst natural disaster to afflict Nepal in years, and its human toll remains staggering: more than 900 workers from numerous hydropower projects are still unaccounted for, trapped somewhere beneath the mountains where their tunnels bore deep into the world’s highest range to harness the energy of its violent rivers.

Surviving Six Hours in Black Water

Ram Chandra, a laborer working the Trishuli banks, described the moment the water began to rise around his legs. He latched onto a metal rung bolted into the tunnel ceiling and held on as the current tried to drag him under.

“The water was rising and it was difficult to move my legs. If I had let go from that rung I would have fallen.”

He and five colleagues, positioned hundreds of meters from the nearest exit, passed a salvaged tin sheet around the group to use as a foothold. Inch by inch, rung by rung, they crawled forward through rising water for six hours. When they finally reached the tunnel gate, they discovered a seventh man waiting there. By the time daylight found them, the flood had stripped away their clothing. Below, the Trishuli still surged, its surface stained dark with debris and sediment, while above, the mountains stood silent after having released their fury. For the seven workers inside, these men had a hellish six-hour ordeal that left them soaked, exhausted, and stripped of everything except their lives.

The Rescue and the Missing

As of the latest counts, approximately 279 hydropower workers have been pulled from the wreckage or managed to trudge out through mud-choked passages on their own. But the number missing dwarfs those rescued. At the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant, search teams worked through the night into Sunday, boring a shaft into the collapsed tunnel structure to pump in breathable air and lower food supplies — a desperate bid to reach anyone still alive inside.

Madan Singh Budha had just finished his night shift at Upper Trishuli tunnel number 2 when the waters arrived. He turned to look outside and saw the river transformed into a churning wall of brown.

“When I looked outside, I could see water and so I started running up the hill.”

He and others scrambled up a rocky slope, using tufts of grass growing between the stones to anchor their grip as they climbed.

“Those who weren’t able to climb up were swept away.”

Budha was later extracted from the disaster zone by helicopter on Sunday. These men had a hellish reminder of how fragile survival can be — a single step up or down the slope separating those who lived from those who did not.

Grief in Jumla

The rescued workers CNN spoke with — including Chandra, Budha, and roughly fifteen others — all hail from Jumla, a remote district in Nepal’s far west where maize terraces cling to near-vertical slopes and village life runs on tight-knit kinship bonds. The distance between their home and the disaster site is vast, but the emotional distance proved almost nonexistent. Every single person in the group had lost a relative or close friend to the flood.

Bhakti Ram Bohara, another survivor, offered a grim arithmetic of the catastrophe. He estimated that around 1,000 men were working across his project and adjacent sites when the waters came. Only about 100 had managed to escape. Among the missing was his brother-in-law — a man who had spent weeks at a time away from home, sending earnings back to their shared village.

“His wife is my sister, and she is pregnant.”

He broke down into tears as he said it.

Amar Bista was not a tunnel worker. He is a tour guide. But when word reached him that dozens of his own family members and friends were trapped at the site, he moved immediately. The task of identifying who was missing, who was safe, and then physically bringing people out proved nearly impossible. He told CNN he had not slept in four days, standing beside the small group of men he had helped save.

“They all are from my area, you know.”

He gestured to the silent men around him, tears tracking his face. When his helicopter first brought him over the site, the sheer magnitude of the destruction struck him with a force no photograph could convey.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened in Nepal’s flooded hydro tunnels?

A catastrophic flood along the Trishuli river inundated multiple hydropower tunnels in Nepal’s mountainous interior, killing hundreds and leaving more than 900 workers missing. These men had a hellish experience inside the tunnels, where rising black water and collapsing infrastructure turned routine work sites into death traps. Rescue operations involving helicopters, air-shaft boring, and manual extraction have been ongoing since the event.

How many workers were rescued versus missing?

Approximately 279 hydropower workers have been rescued or self-extracted as of the latest available counts. More than 900 remain missing. At the Trishuli 3A plant specifically, search teams have been boring shafts to deliver air and food to anyone still alive inside collapsed sections.

Where are the rescued workers from?

The group CNN interviewed — roughly 17 men including Ram Chandra, Madan Singh Budha, and Bhakti Ram Bohara — all come from Jumla district in western Nepal. Each had lost at least one relative or close friend in the flood, compounding their physical trauma with communal grief.

What is the current status of search-and-rescue operations?

Teams at the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant were working through the night into Sunday, boring a shaft into the collapsed tunnel to pump breathable air and lower food. Helicopter extractions continued for survivors stranded on inaccessible slopes. The full scale of the missing population means operations are expected to continue for days or weeks.