Nepal Floods Trap Hydropower Workers After Trishuli River Tunnel Collapse

According to the BBC, Nepalese hydropower workers described the moment water from the Trishuli River surged into a tunnel during deadly flash floods last week, trapping colleagues at hydropower sites along the river. Nepal's death toll has exceeded 1,000 and officials say about 4,000 people are missing, while engineers and rescue teams are pumping air into tunnels and using excavators and heavy machinery to reach workers still trapped. Pemba Dundu Tamang said he escaped after running for about 20 minutes as the flood followed him uphill, but later learned that six relatives had died when their riverside home was swept away. His colleague Itha Ghale said he also survived the disaster, which hit the Upper Trishuli 3B Hydropower Project, due to open next year and designed to reuse water from an upstream hydroelectric plant to generate more electricity for Nepal's national grid. Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet said soldiers were focused on search-and-rescue efforts, collecting bodies and preventing disease. A new report said there was evidence of growing instability around the glacier before the disaster and that better early warning systems could have saved lives. Experts from the Asian Mountain Academic Alliance, the Stimson Centre and China's Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment said satellite images showed the glacier surface moving faster, meltwater turning brown and a crack developing in surrounding rock.