Ten days is an impossible amount of time to survive buried underground in a flooded tunnel, yet it happened. When rescue workers pulled a Chinese national named Lu Haitao alive from a 225-meter tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal's Rasuwa district, it shocked disaster response teams. Catastrophic flash floods had ripped through the Himalayan valley weeks prior, triggered by an August 26 glacier and rock collapse that sent a devastating wall of ice, rock, and mud barreling down the border region.
You wouldn't expect anyone to make it out of a disaster zone like that after over a week without proper food or sunlight. Yet, military statements and rescue footage confirmed that Lu was extracted alert, with stable vitals, though suffering from mild hypothermia and caked in thick, slimy mud. This extraordinary extraction provided a brief wave of hope amidst one of the worst natural disasters the region has faced in years, where the overall death toll climbed past 1,300 and thousands remained missing.
What Happened During the Himalayan Flash Flood
The disaster struck without warning on August 26, when a massive segment of a glacier collapsed on the upper reaches of the river, creating a tsunami-like wall of water and debris. It swept away homes, infrastructure, and roads near the border with China's Tibet. Hundreds of construction workers and laborers working on underground hydropower infrastructure suddenly found themselves cut off from the outside world.
Authorities estimate that up to 900 people might be trapped across multiple subterranean tunnels linked to six different hydropower projects along the river system. The sheer volume of mud and rock blocked entry points completely, forcing emergency response teams from the Nepal Army and foreign specialists to spend grueling days digging through compressed sludge.
Before Lu's rescue, the operation had yielded very few survivors. On the Friday prior to his extraction, workers managed to pull two individuals from another tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station. But finding someone alive ten days later is an extreme anomaly in disaster recovery timelines, where standard survival windows usually close after 72 hours.
Inside the Desperate Search and Rescue Operations
Rescue missions in narrow, debris-choked mountain tunnels are painfully slow and hazardous. Teams cannot simply use heavy machinery because any shift in the rubble risks collapsing the entire structure onto both victims and rescuers. Manual digging, probing, and listening for faint sounds are the only viable methods.
When joint teams finally breached the 225-meter mark inside the Upper Trishuli-1 audit tunnel on Saturday, they found Lu waiting inside the darkness. Footage released by the military showed him being given immediate medical checks inside a helicopter, appearing exhausted, dusty, and disoriented, but conscious enough to wrap his arms around his rescuers.
At nearby command centers like the Maithili Barrack in the Nuwakot district, the reality of the disaster hits hard. Families have plastered walls with photographs of missing relatives, desperate for similar miracles. Relatives of workers trapped in tunnels like the Hakubesi Hydroelectric Project continue to hold out hope, clinging to unverified reports that dozens of voices could still be heard shouting from deep within the subterranean networks.
The Broader Humanitarian Crisis
While individual survival stories capture global attention, the wider picture remains grim. The disaster management authority reported that over 1,344 people lost their lives in the floods, while nearly 4,900 people are still unaccounted for. This total includes hundreds of foreign nationals, ranging from construction professionals to trekkers and pilgrims caught unaware by the sudden torrents.
Cross-border impacts have been severe as well, with Chinese state media reporting dozens dead and hundreds missing on the Tibetan side of the border. Relief camps are currently struggling to house thousands of displaced residents whose villages were entirely erased from the map.
Medical teams continue to monitor survivors like Lu Haitao at army hospitals, treating them for exhaustion, shock, and exposure-related complications. Meanwhile, heavy equipment and manual labor units keep working around the clock along the river valley, searching the remaining sealed tunnels before the window of survival shuts forever.
If you are following ongoing recovery updates, check local military briefings and official disaster management portals for daily casualty counts and verified rescue bulletins. Disaster response teams continue their grueling underground excavation efforts as families wait for answers.
Nepal tunnel rescue revives hopes 10 days after flood
This video provides on-the-ground news footage and context regarding the successful rescue operation of the trapped worker inside the Nepal hydropower tunnel.
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