Rescuing those still trapped by flash floods in Nepal and Tibet

0:00This message comes from Schwab. At Schwab, you can get everything from self-directed investing to full-service wealth management, all in one place. No matter your investing goal, life stage, amount to invest, or know-how, you can invest your way with Schwab. Today on State of the World, rescuing those still trapped by floods in Nepal and Tibet. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. I cannot stop watching videos of the flash floods from Tibet and Nepal. Every time I encounter it on social media, I'm transfixed.

0:43The speed and the power of the disaster is just stunning. It's been almost a week since a wall of water and mud and rock devastated riverside communities in the Himalayas. Rescuers are still trying to locate hundreds who are missing. Many of them are workers believed to be trapped inside a dozen hydroelectric power plants. But as NPR's Dia Hadid tells us, the first step for the rescuers is actually finding the power plants. Nepal's army is leading rescue efforts, and on X they shared video of khaki-clad men pulling themselves on ropes in slippery mud in a tight, dark, dripping tunnel. Just finding the tunnel is an achievement.

1:29Arnold Dix is a tunnelling expert helping to oversee rescue efforts. He describes the flood like a bomb that's gone off. We've got multiple power stations all blown up. In each of them, we've potentially got people trapped. So there are multiple disasters. All concurrent, all with people who could be alive, all in grave danger of dying. But first they have to find the power stations, many built along Nepal's Trishuli River, because they were covered up by mud, debris and boulders. So you're presented with a moonscape. It used to be, we used to have it, it's like a power station here, but it's gone.

2:04He says the ground has risen between 30 and 50 feet in some areas. That's caused the river to literally shift. Dick says rescuers are relying on advanced mapping techniques to locate the tunnels, which were a feature of the hydropower plants. That's because they lead into the turbine houses. And the Goldilocks zone where we think people may have survived is actually in the turbine houses. But we haven't been able to get into any turbine houses yet. Yet. Dick says he's been assigned one hydropower plant called Trashuli 3A where dozens of people are feared trapped. He says consider the challenges they faced.

2:44He says in the past few days, rescuers dug down into the entrance of the tunnel. It used to be open to the air. But it's now underneath the river. And it was blocked by huge boulders carried by the flood, and they had to get the army to... So normally it's a no-no to use explosives, but we had to call the army in to blow up the rocks. They're also trying to prevent water from rushing in by... Trying to create an artificial drain for the tunnel so that we can let the water out. And they're trying to punch a hole in the top of the power station and... See if we can get some air and a bit of light, and see if there's anyone alive in there.

3:22The president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, Purugel Jasharpa, told NPR that some of their men were assisting rescuers in finding tunnels, but they kept encountering. Debris full of mud and it's very, very difficult to walk inside. Some people have survived.

3:42One of them was 29-year-old Janak Tapalia. He says when he saw the floodwaters gushing down, People started screaming. We all started running. Tapalia saw a floating water tanker and climbed onto it. Says, that's how I saved my life. But most of his friends, his colleagues... I saw the water carrying them all away. Tapalia says he was lucky. My friends were not able to save themselves. They could have survived, but they did not get the chance. Many Nepalese were angered after the government initially turned down offers of foreign assistance. The CEO of the Independent Power Plant Producers Association in Nepal told NPR that now foreign teams are helping but Now rescue is going on, but is it so late?

4:30The CEO, Pim Gwatham, says the government did not understand the level of technical expertise needed to rescue people from these hydro projects. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said two teams from India and another from China specialised in tunnel rescues had arrived to assist Nepali teams. Spokesperson Lok Bahadur Pohdel-Chatri said a Korean team was also on its way, and he added, Rescue efforts were yet to make progress. Dear Hadid, NPR News.

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