00:01It happened in an instant.
00:03A glacier collapse at Langtang Lirung triggered a landslide so powerful
00:07it sent a wall of water tearing through Nepal's Trishuli Valley,
00:11swallowing homes, roads, and a network of 12 hydropower stations.
00:15More than 1,300 people are confirmed dead.
00:19Over 5,000 remain missing.
00:21Among the hardest hit, the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project,
00:26where up to 40 workers were believed trapped underground.
00:29When I checked with the drone image and everything, I could see nothing at all.
00:33It's completely swept away.
00:35You can imagine a two-, three-storey building, whole gardens and everything.
00:40Rescuers faced a wall of rubble, boulders the size of buildings,
00:44blocking every tunnel entrance.
00:46Early excavation even missed the mark,
00:48with survey coordinates off by several metres.
00:51First of all, where they were digging, it was in the wrong place.
00:54And then we started digging in the right place.
00:57First of all, we identified the right place.
00:58And then the crown was identified.
01:00And then we checked the design.
01:01But it was a 40-centimeter thick crown.
01:03It's a big concrete with the ivy, you know.
01:06Your ivy is like a very strong ivy with the metal structures and everything.
01:10So again, we had like, every step there was a problem.
01:14Like, I think we had to innovate like 10 or 20 ideas on the way, you know.
01:18At one point, hope nearly ran out, when drilling triggered a jet of pressurised water,
01:24suggesting the tunnel network may have been fully flooded.
01:26It was like a jet, a small jet, you know.
01:29And then when I heard, when I came to know the tunnel is full of water, with the high pressure,
01:34I lost my hope.
01:35I thought like, the whole, what, like, inside the tunnels, it should be completely filled
01:39with water.
01:40So at that time, my body was sinking, you know.
01:43I thought like, oh my goodness, all 40 people, we lost them.
01:46Like, that was like a roughly four or fifth days.
01:48But on day nine, a breakthrough.
01:51Kabir Maharjan and Sanjay Saar were found alive in a cable duct tunnel, 160 meters from
01:58the exit, in an air pocket that had kept them alive on dripping water and dwindling oxygen.
02:04Engineers say the men survived because they stayed still, conserving energy as floodwaters
02:09slowly receded.
02:10And two percent, they became alive due to the reason that the water is dropping and the
02:19minimum oxygen level for survival is available.
02:24And the another thing is they are not wasting their energy.
02:29They remain quiet.
02:31Both men are now recovering, unable to stand after their ordeal.
02:36A day later, a third survivor, Chinese national Lu Hightao, was pulled from a separate tunnel
02:42nearby.
02:50Rescue efforts continue at 3A and the nearby Chilimi hydropower site, as officials hold out
02:55hope more survivors could still be found.
02:57o
02:58o
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02:59o
03:07You
