First rescue at Nepal power plant as voices heard from trapped workers

Nine days after a wall of floodwater tore through Nepal's Trishuli River valley, rescuers pulled a man from inside the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant—the first person extracted from the tunnels where 42 workers remain unaccounted for. The breakthrough came as teams continued boring into a tunnel stretching more than four kilometers beneath the plant, a shaft that had become a tomb when the catastrophic floods struck. Local police chief Bipin Regmi confirmed to reporters that rescuers had also heard voices from deeper inside the complex, a sign that at least some of the trapped workers were still alive.

The scale of the disaster that unfolded nine days earlier was staggering. Massive flash floods and landslides triggered by the deluge had swept through multiple hydropower projects scattered across the Himalayan foothills, trapping hundreds of workers in the process. The floodwaters—described by those who witnessed them as cement-thick and moving with tremendous force—killed more than 1,200 people across Nepal. Among those missing at the various plants were workers from China, South Korea, and India, making the rescue effort an international concern. At the Trishuli 3A site alone, dozens of people had been working inside the underground powerhouse when the water came.

The rescue operation itself had been grueling and uncertain. Teams worked around the clock in treacherous conditions, boring into the tunnel system in hopes of reaching survivors. For nine days, the effort had yielded no confirmed rescues—only the grim accumulation of time and the knowledge that every hour mattered. The discovery of voices and now the extraction of one survivor offered the first concrete evidence that people inside could still be saved.

But the window for survival in such conditions is narrow and unforgiving. Parikshit Mehra, an Indian army colonel leading specialized rescue troops at the site, explained to reporters that the first forty-eight hours after entrapment are the most critical. Trapped in complete darkness, people become disoriented within a day or so. Beyond that threshold, psychological deterioration accelerates. After two days in darkness, survivors often begin to hallucinate. The body and mind, deprived of light and hope, begin to fail in predictable ways. Mehra noted that panic sets in more quickly underground than it would in open conditions—the claustrophobia and sensory deprivation compound the terror of being trapped.

Yet he also offered a counterpoint: miracles do happen. The rescue of the first worker proved that survival was possible, that people could endure in those tunnels long enough to be found. The voices heard by rescuers suggested that more survivors might be waiting in the darkness, clinging to the possibility that someone would reach them. The medical team dispatched to the site was preparing to treat whoever emerged next. The race against time continued, but for the first time in nine days, there was tangible evidence that the race could be won.