Pemba Dundu Tamang and Itha Ghale were welding inside the tunnel at Trishuli-3 ‘B’ in Rasuwa when a strong gust of wind swept into the other end of the tunnel. About 50-60 workers who were working a few hundred meters inside the entrance could neither realize that floodwater or fierce gusts were entering from the opposite entrance.
Pemba was welding at the time and initially thought a part of the tunnel had collapsed. All his coworkers began to flee the tunnel.
“Everyone ran out; I was a bit skeptical at first but…” Pemba, who survived by escaping the tunnel, recounted the incident that happened last Wednesday while at a camp in Battar, Nuwakot, on Monday.
“I didn’t think anything had fallen inside,” he said. He was slower to react and started to run later, but two large vehicles slowed the floodwater speed somewhat. By the time he was fleeing, water had already reached the area.
“The river is behind, so I ran forward,” he recalled. Their workplace was near the power generation center at the tunnel entrance. This entrance was slightly elevated above the river, but floodwater had still managed to enter the tunnel from there.
While running, Pemba managed to exit through a tunnel outflow slightly above the river surface. There, Itha Ghale and other coworkers were waiting. Itha, who was closer to the exit, came out of the tunnel before Pemba. He immediately guessed that water had entered inside the tunnel.
“The plywood was laid down; everything was swept away… that’s when I ran out,” Itha explained. According to him, had the floodwater entered from the entrance where they were working, they wouldn’t have survived.
Once floodwater reached outside the tunnel, everyone started climbing uphill. At that moment, Pemba and Itha saw their own village beside the nearby river.
“My settlement is down there. When I looked, nothing was left. I nearly fainted,” Pemba shared. Six family members, including his mother, brother, and sister-in-law, are still missing. His wife worked at another hydropower project site and, according to Pemba, she escaped by running toward the forest.
Witnessing his village swept away by the flood left Itha shocked as well.
“I got out and looked at my house—everything was washed away. The river had increased, there was no house left. I was devastated,” he said. His parents and eldest daughter, along with five other relatives, are still missing.
Although safe now, they struggled to get proper food for two days until the Nepal Army rescued them and brought them to Nuwakot. Pemba mentioned that some people are still missing in the power generation center area.
On Monday afternoon in Battar, Taramaya Tamang waited for the body of her father, who died in the flood. She worked with her sister-in-law at the outside site office of Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project.
“A huge flood was coming. We were warned about the disaster and told to flee. I managed to escape. As the flood approached, I held my breath and climbed onto a mango tree, and was pushed upward,” she recalled the moment of the flood.
“I got into a storage shed for waste. The flood knocked down my sister-in-law and me. The tunnel was nearby; I found the door and placed my sister-in-law inside, then went in myself. The water swept everyone away from there, the office was also flooded.”
According to her, water entered the tunnel she entered, which had a three-level structure. After shouting for help, someone turned on a torch and helped them get outside. Because the tunnel wasn’t safe, they climbed the hill and reached a safer location. She heard that around 385 people were rescued from their workplace. Authorities reported that many more remain trapped in another tunnel.
Only after the rescue did she learn that her parents were missing due to the devastating flood. She had to spend a night under the open sky before rescue, without a network to communicate.
“There was no contact with family. In the evening, network came, and I asked my sister. It seemed others were affected by the flood; I was informed my father was unconscious,” she said. After rescue, neither of her parents were found.
“We searched during the rescue but didn’t find my father,” Taramaya said emotionally.
Taramaya’s family lived in a trench area. Their old house was destroyed by the earthquake a decade ago, and they relocated there.
“In 2072 BS (2015), we were left homeless. In 2083 BS, the entire family was swept away,” she said.
Pemba is worried that both his home and workplace have been destroyed.
“Even though I’m alive, it feels useless. Where to live, where to go for food?” he said.
“After the earthquake, at least we could salvage some belongings and eat. Now, we have nothing. There’s no village, no home, no place to earn a living.” Pemba fears he may face hunger ahead.
