12th day of great flood in Nepal Himalaya... All-out effort to search for missing people, including Korean emergency rescue teams

(Kathmandu/Hanoi = Yonhap News) Correspondent Hyun-gyu Son and Jin-hyeong Park = On the 6th (local time), 12 days after the massive flood that struck the Himalayan mountainous region on the border between Nepal and China, rescue teams including Nepal and the Republic of Korea Overseas Emergency Relief Team (KDRT) continued their search for missing people, focusing on flood-damaged hydroelectric power plants.

The rescue team, which rescued four survivors from the power plant tunnel over the past two days, is making efforts to rescue additional missing people from the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydroelectric power plant in Bagmati Province, north-central Nepal, where nine missing Korean employees worked.

KDRT announced that it had obtained a statement from Lu Haitao (49), a Chinese man rescued from the UT-1 power plant tunnel the previous day, that there was one more person near the point where they were rescued and that their fate is unknown.

The day before, 10 members of the KDRT rescue team first discovered and rescued Mr. Lu in a tunnel near Weir Dam, the upper dam of UT-1.

KDRT also recovered one unidentified body from this tunnel and confirmed the locations of two other bodies.

Accordingly, KDRT plans to send 10 rescue teams back into the tunnel on this day to search for additional survivors and bodies.

Additionally, a three-person unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) team will also conduct searches focusing on the powerhouse within the power plant.

Korea South-East Power, to which three of the missing Koreans belong, is deploying four land search teams and a total of 46 people to search the mountainous area around the accident site.

The number of ground search personnel has nearly doubled by recruiting additional Nepali Sherpas who are familiar with the local terrain, and search operations using drones equipped with special thermal imaging and infrared cameras and search dogs are also being carried out.

Doosan Energy, where the six missing Koreans belong, launched a helicopter and two drones on this day and is intensively searching the main camp (accommodation and office building) of the hydroelectric power plant and the downstream area.

The Associated Press reported that Nepalese authorities estimate that about 500 of the 900 missing employees from 12 hydropower plants, including UT-1, are trapped in various tunnels and are concentrating their search capabilities on these sites.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, who is visiting Nepal, met with Nepalese Minister of Foreign Affairs Sisir Kunal and requested Nepal's special interest and support in the search for missing Koreans.

At the meeting, Minister Cho expressed condolences over the damage caused by the flood and said he was deeply concerned that the whereabouts of nine Koreans had not been confirmed.

In addition, it was explained that it would provide 130 million won worth of in-kind support as well as 1 million dollars (approximately 1.35 billion won) of humanitarian aid through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Minister Canal expressed his gratitude for this.

Meanwhile, according to the Nepal Disaster Management Agency, as of this morning, the number of deaths in Nepal was 1,341.

The total number of deaths, including at least 31 deaths in China's Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region, is 1,372.

A total of 5,527 people are missing, including 4,996 in Nepal and 531 in China.

In addition, it was initially calculated that about 7,500 houses, 48 ​​public buildings such as schools, and about 100 bridges were completely destroyed or lost.

In relation to this, the United Nations set out to raise support funds worth $50 million (approximately 67.5 billion won), saying that the scale of damage from the massive floods in Nepal was so great that relief efforts were faced with great difficulties.

KDRT also received a request for support from the Nepalese authorities and visited the Nepal Army unit in the Batar area of ​​Bagmati Province, where the base camp is located, this morning and provided 262 bags for body recovery.

In addition, ahead of the 7th day of national mourning, a memorial event was held in Kathmandu, the capital, the day before.

Dozens of participants placed Nepalese flags on the ground, lit candles around them, and appealed for solidarity from the international community with signs with the phrase ‘Pray for Nepal’ written on them.