Speaker A
There were some 14 hydropower plants all along the river that have been wiped out, that have been swamped by the raging waters six days ago here in Nepal.
Over 900 dead in Nepal floods; rescue efforts ongoing for workers trapped in hydropower tunnels amid devastating conditions.
Key Takeaways
- The Nepal floods have caused massive destruction, including wiping out multiple hydropower plants.
- Rescue operations are complex and dangerous due to terrain and flood debris, with many still trapped underground.
- Despite no confirmed survivors in tunnels, rescuers maintain hope based on potential air pockets.
- The human impact is profound, with many families searching for missing loved ones and experiencing trauma.
- Miraculous rescues like that of young Manisha provide hope amidst widespread devastation.
What the video covers
- More than 14 hydropower plants along the river in Nepal were destroyed by floods six days ago.
- Approximately 40 to 50 workers remain trapped inside the Upper Trishuli Tunnel number three's powerhouse.
- Rescue teams from Nepal Police, Army, special forces, and Indian Army tunnel experts are involved in the operation.
- The terrain is extremely difficult, with liquefied cement-like sludge, rocks, and debris hampering rescue efforts.
- No signs of life have been detected yet inside the submerged tunnels, but rescuers remain hopeful about air pockets.
- The death toll and number of missing persons continue to rise as more excavations reveal the extent of destruction.
- A miraculous rescue of a six-year-old girl named Manisha, trapped for 60 hours, has brought hope and faith to many.
- Families of missing persons are struggling with grief and uncertainty, often unable to access devastated sites.
- The flood has devastated many towns and communities along the river, causing mass evacuations and widespread loss.
- Journalists face challenges reporting from the region due to difficult terrain and ongoing rescue operations.
Chapters
- 00:00Hydropower plants destroyed by floods
- 00:40Difficult terrain and flood conditions
- 01:25Rescue efforts and forces involved
- 02:20Trapped workers inside the powerhouse
- 02:37Excavation and search for signs of life
- 03:07Flood debris and glacier impact
- 03:32Hope and optimism amid no signs of life
- 04:00Rising death toll and missing persons
- 04:55Challenges for journalists and rescuers
- 06:10Miraculous rescue of six-year-old Manisha
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
We gained access to the Upper Trishuli Tunnel number three. Today, they estimate there may be more than 40 to 50 people trapped still in that tunnel.
Speaker A
It is, you know, you talked about the difficult terrain. It is incredibly difficult. The, you know, we're talking about the steep gorges, very uneven terrain, very difficult to access.
Speaker A
It’s just walking on the, you know, we think of it as this flood that occurred six days ago of water.
Speaker A
It's really like liquid cement. And just walking on it, you sink into it, it’s—
Speaker A
And it kind of sucks you in. It is very hard to even kind of pull your feet out at times.
Speaker A
And you pick it up. It's really like, like liquid cement. There are rocks in it.
Speaker A
There are boulders. There’s all manner of debris. I want to show you, we talked to a colonel from the Nepal Army, who is just one of several forces from Nepal who are trying to rescue these workers at this particular tunnel.
Speaker A
But there are tunnels all along this river where there are rescue operations going on.
Speaker A
Here's what the colonel told me today. There are multi forces here from the police, Nepali Army, and special forces, and even the sniffer dogs are here.
Speaker A
So you can see here, this is a cable tunnel. So, 170 meters inside there’s a powerhouse.
Speaker A
So, I think there are about 45 to 50 people inside the powerhouse. That many, 45? Yeah.
Speaker A
Because, yeah, the working team inside the powerhouse. And they were here when the flood came, when the flood hit this area, they were inside. Right.
Speaker A
So, we are trying now to excavate all these along the way, and you can see the guys there.
Speaker A
Yeah. Good. Right. So you’re going to carve a trench here for any water that’s inside to get back out? Yes.
Speaker A
An even bigger trench to get those floods outside. Do you have any sign that they’re alive?
Speaker A
You know, earlier, earlier we tried, we tried difficult drilling there, so that there might be some presence of oxygen so that we can send some more. I hope, I hope there—
Speaker A
But you hope you haven’t had signs of life?
Speaker A
We have nothing. Yeah. So we’re trying our best to get in through. So this was completely submerged.
Speaker A
This tunnel was completely—You see, you can see this. It’s about 10 to 15 meters.
Speaker A
All the debris that just came in on top of the tunnel. So to see the roof was dead and it’s all—
Speaker A
So we have to. It was all the glacier. It was. It came down rolling through the downstream water.
Speaker A
So it just tore it all, the whole damn— I should correct myself. That’s the Upper Trishuli.
Speaker A
I’ve been up for, like, 24 hours. I said, I don’t even know what I said, but it’s the Upper Trishuli.
Speaker A
Surely it’s remarkable, though, what they are doing. I mean, they have not had any signs of life from that group, but they are still trying to hold on to hope and trying to hold on to optimism, that there are air pockets in there,
Speaker A
and that if they have access to water, they could still be alive. And we hear that from a number of Army personnel.
Speaker A
I have talked to both Nepal Army and also there’s Indian Army tunnel experts who are helping as well.
Speaker A
I talked to some of those today as well. And, you know, you talked about the death toll rising, and the number of missing rising as well, that’s not completely unexpected.
Speaker A
You know, there have been a number of just incidental reports from people saying they didn’t report somebody missing because they didn’t want to think this person was gone.
Speaker A
And they were hoping, they were optimistic that they might find this person. And as the days have gone by and we’re now on day six, they file missing person reports that they list this person as missing.
Speaker A
So, and also as more excavation is done, there’s no telling what this sludge that has buried so many towns along the river holds, and that will be revealed in the coming days and weeks.
Speaker A
Anderson, it strikes me that you talked about getting to the place and what they’re dealing with in trying to save people.
Speaker A
We saw this incredible rescue of a little girl who was pulled out five days after.
Speaker A
But you’re talking about the actual ground you’re walking on is like cement but liquefied.
Speaker A
So it’s, you’re sinking into it. I’m just curious, how did you get to where you were, and how difficult was it just to go and be a journalist there, a reporter trying to get this information?
Speaker A
Meantime, you’ve got all of these people who are trying to rescue people in the worst kind of conditions.
Speaker A
The conditions are extremely difficult. You know, the military really is—I mean, this is day six, so there have been a lot of evacuations from a lot of these devastated towns and communities along that river that overflowed so much six days ago.
Speaker A
And a lot of those towns have really been empty.
Speaker A
You see a few people here and there. A lot of those people have been moved out.
Speaker A
The military is really focusing on these tunnels, hoping that there are, you know, hundreds of people maybe still inside these multiple tunnels.
Speaker A
But the search for the missing here in Kathmandu, which is where I am now, it continues.
Speaker A
I’ve been following an American woman who is here, who has flown here, hoping to find word of her mom and her dad, who were on a religious pilgrimage and were crossing over into Tibet the morning of the explosion of water at that site.
Speaker A
And I’ll have her story tonight on my program.
Speaker A
But there are so many people here who are just, you know, going from hospitals to morgues day after day, trying to do the best they can, and they can’t get access to the sites where they would like to be.
Speaker A
And it’s very frustrating for a lot of people. It is just so many people have just disappeared.
Speaker A
Everybody, it seems, everybody you talk to knows somebody—a loved one, a friend, a friend of a friend.
Speaker A
This is something which has, I mean, it’s devastated this country. Just moments ago, I had the opportunity to speak with the parents of six-year-old Manisha, the girl who was trapped in a collapsed building for 60 hours after the flood.
Speaker A
And we’ve all seen this incredibly gripping and heart-wrenching video of this girl as she was delicately pulled out by emergency crews.
Speaker A
She had bruises and cuts on her face. She was covered in dust, but incredibly, she was alive.
Speaker A
Her parents thought that she was dead. They were asking the Nepal Armed Police Force to search for her body, and that’s what they thought they would be recovering.
Speaker A
And so when they saw the video and they saw that their daughter was alive, it was a shock to them.
Speaker A
They say it’s a miracle. It’s made them believe in God. It’s made them believe that there’s a purpose for being here greater than what they understood before the flood.
Speaker A
She’s being treated at a hospital here in Kathmandu. I was allowed to go in to see her, to sit with her and her parents.
Speaker A
And here is what her father told me about the moment when he saw that video and realized that his daughter had been rescued from the flood when they thought she was dead.
Speaker A
And on that one, I was thinking of the killer. Her face was unrecognizable as there were multiple wounds.
Speaker A
Her condition was serious wounds and blood all over. After seeing the video of her, I could confirm it was my daughter.
Speaker A
She was on oxygen and doing medical. She was being kept like that on the day.
Speaker A
What is it like as a father to look at a video like that and see your daughter in that condition?
Speaker A
Oh, oh, that’s not bad. It—Oh, now, in that—Film, we’re hearing more about.
Speaker A
Yeah. She’s my child. That’s it. That’s all I have to say. My mother. Sorry.
Speaker A
I know what was—I just can’t speak in my mind. It was incredibly hard, particularly on her father, because he was home alone with his daughter Manisha when the flood hit.
Speaker A
He said he was in the kitchen preparing a meal. His wife had already gone off to work, and he said—
Speaker A
Several hours later with his wife, both of them collapsed. They lost consciousness because they thought that they had lost their six year old daughter, and yet they didn't want to be pulled out by rescue helicopter.
Speaker A
They were asking searchers to at least find her body so that they could have closure.
Speaker A
And they actually found her body not in the wreckage of their house, but two other buildings that had been destroyed.
Speaker A
So somehow, while she was in her bedroom, she had she had been able to be moved in some sort of an air pocket that was safe during the flooding.
Speaker A
And then she was there for 60 hours alive when rescuers found her. We also spoke with her mother.
Speaker A
We spent time with the family and we're going to have much more of that, later today here on CNN.
Speaker A
But I just wanted to come up and share this incredible story with you. And there's a lot more of it to come.
Speaker A
Kate's incredible doesn't even begin. I mean, what you just said, she wasn't even found in the wreckage of her home after this whole tragedy.
Speaker A
The wreckage of other buildings down the way in it is remarkable. Just six years old.
Speaker A
And to see the her father become overcome with emotion is entirely understandable under these circumstances. Will.
Speaker A
Thank you so much. Literally look forward to hearing more of your reporting. Thank you.
Speaker A
Will Ripley for us in Katmandu.
Topics:Nepal floodhydropower tunnelsrescue operationsUpper Trishuliflood disastermissing personsNepal Armynatural disasterManisha rescueflood aftermath
