Australian expert urges hope in Nepal tunnel rescue after flash flood
Quick Look
- Australian tunnel safety expert Arnold Dix urged rescuers in Nepal not to abandon hope of finding survivors in the Upper Trishuli-3A hydropower project tunnels, where scores of workers are feared trapped after a flash flood.
- He noted tunnels can remain stable and preserve breathable air, citing past rescues where people survived days underground.
- Rescue efforts continue across multiple hydropower sites in the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor, with Nepal reporting 1,252 deaths and 4,216 missing, including around 900 hydropower workers.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Flash floods struck hydropower projects in Nepal's Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor, trapping workers underground. The Upper Trishuli-3A site is a major focus of rescue efforts, with experts noting tunnel stability may allow survival despite surface devastation.
Australian tunnel safety and disaster expert Arnold Dix has urged rescuers in Nepal not to give up hope of finding survivors inside the tunnels in the Upper Trishuli-3A hydropower project, where scores of workers are feared trapped underground days after a flash flood.
“The operation at Trishuli 3A is proceeding as a rescue, not a recovery,” Dix, who is remotely assisting the operation, wrote on LinkedIn. Footage recorded around the time of the August 26 flood shows around 30 people moving toward and seeking shelter in the power station tunnels, he said.
Dix said tunnels can remain comparatively stable after devastation above ground and may preserve breathable air and survivable spaces. “Silence is not evidence of death. It is only the absence of a signal,” he wrote, citing past rescues in Chile,
Thailand, and India where people survived underground for days without contact. Rescue teams are still trying to reach workers at more than a dozen hydropower sites along the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor. At Trishuli-3A, a 93-member team is working with Chinese tunnel specialists, while teams from India and South Korea are assisting operations at other sites.
Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said on Thursday that 1,252 people have died and 4,216 remain missing. Around 900 people working at hydropower projects are among those still unreachable, while 11,993 people have been rescued.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Rescue teams will establish contact with trapped workers within the next 48 hours.
Possible · Within days
Open Questions
- How many workers remain trapped at Upper Trishuli-3A?
- What is the current status of air supply and structural integrity in the tunnels?
- When will rescue teams reach the trapped workers?
- Are there additional risks of secondary flooding or landslides?
