Two people were rescued in separate operations on Saturday as Nepal continues dealing with the fallout from devastating floods that hit the country 10 days ago.
The Nepali military said Saturday a team made up of its army and South Korean disaster experts saved a Chinese man from a 740 foot tunnel in the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, The Guardian reported. CNN wrote that a 60-year-old Nepali woman was found downriver in a four-story building in Betrawati.
A local official said the family of the woman, Chandika Shrestha, started ceremonial last rites and preparations for her funeral, as they thought she died, according to CNN.
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Authorities said at least 1,362 people died due to the flooding. Around 900 hydropower workers at facilities near the Trishuli River are among the thousands of missing.
On Friday, rescuers pulled two workers, a mechanical foreman and a supervisor, alive from a tunnel in the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant. Both were reportedly in stable condition, and taken to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment.
Dirghayu Kumar Shrestha, the head of the Nepal Electricity Authority, said that a third man’s body was recovered at the hydropower plant, too, The New York Times wrote. The man was a mechanical engineer, he said.
Rescuers said they heard voices from inside the tunnel on Friday morning, which helped them locate the workers. More voices can still be heard inside, the rescuers said.
The flash floods and mudslides began after a glacial collapse near the Nepal–China border on Aug. 26.
Nepal’s Foreign Ministry says a preliminary assessment conducted under the Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment shows about 7,570 houses were damaged, affecting 32,933 people. Another 48 government officers were affected, as well as 34 miles of roads, 37 drivable bridges and 68 suspension bridges.
Around 4,462 acres of agricultural land, 13 hydropower projects, one solar power plant and two transmission lines were damaged as well, the Foreign Ministry said in a Saturday update.
“Given the scale and extent of the damage caused by this disaster, a comprehensive Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) is being simultaneously undertaken to determine the full extent of loss and damage and the costs for rebuilding and reconstruction,” Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said.
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