'Layer upon layer of miracles': How Nepal flood survivors were rescued from tunnel

Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, told the BBC how rescuers reached two men trapped in a blocked tunnel at the Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station. "It's similar furniture upon furniture of furniture of miracles" that they recovered 2 men connected Friday, helium said, fixed that the aggregate challenges they faced. Dix explained that he had been advising Nepal's hydropower authorities on how to excavate the passageway to the station, one of several facilities struck by last week's massive flash flood on the Nepal‑Tibet border. "The first hurdle was to find the hydropower station, in a landscape rendered almost unrecognisable by the flood that has so far killed 1,300 people," he said. "I've ne'er known an rescue cognition wherever you had to look for an entranceway of a passageway that was antecedently up the hill, that was present underground. You tin ideate the enormity of the avalanche, it wholly buried the entrance," said Dix, who is the president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association. Using engineering techniques, old topographic maps, satellite imagery of the area after the disaster, helicopter video footage and "anything other we could find connected the aboveground of the upland specified arsenic powerfulness poles", Dix and his team triangulated the likely position of the entrance and began digging. They located the opening, but the next challenge was to locate the survivors. "We knew they would beryllium up ahead, but we didn't cognize wherever exactly. So you conscionable person to commencement digging successful the close direction. And you perceive retired if you tin perceive anybody," he said. Rescuers had to breach a tunnel completely blocked by mud and rocks, some larger than cars, and had to clear the route using explosives. "We had to usage explosives which we usually ne'er bash due to the fact that of the hazard of blowing up radical [trapped successful the tunnel] and blowing ourselves up," said Dix. He praised the Nepalese service for doing "a fantastic job" managing the explosions with precision to avoid destabilising the tunnel. At the same time, they discovered the tunnel remained full of water. Using excavators and pumping machines, Nepalese rescuers dug a series of trenches from the tunnel to the river outside, allowing them to drain the water.