Man survives nine days trapped in flooded Nepal hydropower tunnel after glacier collapse
Sanjay Sah was rescued after nine days in a dark, water-filled tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, surviving on seepage water, prayer and thoughts of his family.
A glacier collapse in late August triggered a massive flood that buried part of the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station deep in the Nepalese mountains. Sanjay Sah, a mechanical foreman employed by the Nepal Electricity Authority, became trapped on the fifth floor of the six-storey powerhouse and spent nine days in total darkness, subsisting on seepage water and floodwater while avoiding further injury to his eyes. He survived by repeatedly chanting one outlet Maha Mantra, recalling his young daughter and wife, and maintaining hope that rescue teams were working above.
The tunnel was transformed by mud, collapsed walls and scattered debris, making navigation impossible. Sah heard the sounds of excavators and drums about 10-12 hours before his rescue, which occurred on the day Hindus celebrate a major deity’s birth. A fellow worker, Kabir Maharjan, was also rescued but suffered more serious injuries, and many others who evacuated the tunnel were swept away by the flood.
Why it matters
The story underscores the human toll of climate-driven floods and the resilience needed in remote disaster zones.
How this story developed
- Aug 28 Nepalese army pulls survivors from flooded hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa
- Sep 3 Families held symbolic funerals for missing victims.
- Sep 3 The storm made landfall on Fujian’s coast after earlier strikes on Zhejiang, leading to the suspension of dozens of ferry services and the closure of schools in Fuzhou and Quanzhou. Tourist sites such as theme parks in Fuzhou were also temporarily closed. The provincial emergency management authority warned of heavy rain, flash floods and landslides, while nearly a quarter-million residents in high-risk zones had been evacuated the previous week.
- Sep 3 Death toll rose above 1,270 and bodies recovered reached 1,252.
- Sep 3 After a deadly flash flood on the China-Nepal border, Chinese authorities have tightly controlled information, emphasizing rescue efforts over the identities of the dead and missing.
- Sep 5 A Canadian citizen missing after the floods was located safe.
- Sep 5 After more than a week of searching, a 64-year-old woman was rescued from a mud-filled house and a Chinese worker was saved from a deep tunnel, rekindling optimism amid Nepal's deadliest floods in a decade.
- Sep 5 Authorities suspended 24 passenger ferry routes and closed Fuzhou theme parks.
- Sep 6 Flash floods ripped a three‑storey building in Xianyou County and drones delivered supplies to a flooded school in Wenzhou.
- Sep 6 Officials are pursuing higher‑ground reconstruction of the school with Indian aid.
- Sep 7 Chinese authorities barred foreign journalists from entering the Tibet Autonomous Region.
- Sep 7 Chinese worker Lu Haitao was rescued from a 225‑metre hydropower tunnel and air‑lifted to a hospital.
- Sep 7 The United Nations launched a $50 million appeal to aid flood‑affected residents.
- Sep 9 Two hydropower workers were rescued after being trapped for nine days.
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