Two survivors miraculously rescued 10 days after devastating flash floods in Nepal

Dipen Shrestha/Reuters

Two more survivors from Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods were rescued on Saturday , offering a sliver of hope for a region reeling from the destruction wrought by a wave of water, ice and mud that washed away entire riverside communities 10 days ago.

A Chinese national, Lu Haitao, was pulled from the hydropower tunnels where hundreds of other workers remain missing while the other, 60-year-old Chandika Shrestha, was found downriver, on the upper floor of a four-story building in the devastated community of Betrawati.

So much time has passed since the floods that Shrestha’s family had started ceremonial last rites and begun preparing for her funeral, believing she had died, a local official said.

Thousands of families remain in this limbo across Nepal and China, not knowing if their loved ones are alive or dead. At least 1,362 people are known to have died in the disaster, authorities say.

About 900 of those missing are hydropower workers, who were working at facilities dotted along the Trishuli River when a huge chunk of ice sheared off a melting glacier, triggering a landslide and floods which buried entire communities in minutes.

Lu said he had been desperately trying to attract rescue workers’ attention for days, crying for help whenever he saw their lights.

“Whenever I saw the lights, I shouted, ‘Hey!’ Really loudly, really loudly,’ he told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. “Maybe they didn’t hear me.

“When they came to rescue me today, even when their (lights) were shining right in front of me, I couldn’t believe it.”

Two other workers were rescued on Friday from a different hydropower plant after rescuers had worked around the clock in treacherous conditions in the hope of finding survivors.

But away from these miraculous rescues, the death toll continues to rise – two bodies were recovered from the same site where Lu was found – and other families are still enduring an agonizing wait for news of missing relatives.

Krishna Poudel added an image of his younger brother Ishwor, a 26-year-old hydropower worker, to a board with scores of other such posters for those missing eight days ago, but he still doesn’t know his brother’s fate.

Some who escaped from the tunnels told Poudel that his brother is still inside, he told Reuters. “They said they could hear the voices of about 200-300 people shouting from inside,” he said.

NEPAL ARMY/Handout/Reuters

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Rescue teams, helped by specialist crews from other countries including India and China, are concentrating their efforts on these hydropower stations. But authorities are also working to rescue those who found themselves cut off by the floods and to rebuild temporary bridges across the river, the Nepali Army said Saturday.

More than 7,500 homes across Nepal and around 55 kilometers (34 miles) of road were damaged in the floods, the Nepali Foreign Ministry said Saturday, leaving thousands in need of humanitarian assistance but with access to the area severely restricted.

Around 35,000 people are believed to need safe temporary accommodation, while 43,000 are feared to be at immediate risk of food insecurity, according to a United Nations report.

CNN’s Kosh Raj Koirala, Bhadra Sharma, Charlotte Reck and Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting.

迪彭·什雷斯塔/路透社

周六，尼泊尔又有两名幸存者获救，这给遭受10天前洪水、冰雹和泥石流袭击的地区带来了一线希望。这场洪水摧毁了整个河岸社区。

一名中国公民卢海涛从水电站隧道中被救出，数百名其他工人仍然失踪；另一名60岁的工人钱迪卡·什雷斯塔在下游受灾严重的贝特拉瓦蒂社区一栋四层楼房的顶层被发现。

当地一位官员表示，洪水过后已经过去了很长时间，以至于施雷斯塔的家人已经开始举行最后的仪式，并开始准备她的葬礼，因为他们认为她已经去世了。

在尼泊尔和中国，成千上万的家庭仍然处于这种煎熬之中，不知道他们的亲人是生是死。据官方统计，至少有1362人在这场灾难中丧生。

失踪者中约有 900 人是水电工人，他们当时正在特里苏里河沿岸的多个设施工作，突然一块巨大的冰块从正在融化的冰川上崩落，引发山体滑坡和洪水，在几分钟内掩埋了整个社区。

卢先生说，他这几天一直在拼命地想引起救援人员的注意，只要看到他们的灯光，他就会哭喊求救。

“每当我看到灯光，我就大声喊‘嘿！’，声音真的很大，真的很大，”他告诉中国中央电视台。“也许他们没听到我喊。”

“今天他们来救我的时候，即使他们的（灯光）就在我眼前照着，我还是不敢相信。”

周五，救援人员在危险的条件下昼夜不停地工作，希望能找到幸存者，随后从另一座水电站救出了另外两名工人。

但除了这些奇迹般的救援之外，死亡人数仍在上升——在发现卢的同一地点又发现了两具尸体——其他家庭仍在痛苦地等待失踪亲人的消息。

克里希纳·普德尔将他26岁的弟弟伊什沃尔（一名水电站工人）的照片贴到了一张告示板上，告示板上还有许多其他失踪人员的寻人启事，但八天前他仍然不知道弟弟的下落。

普德尔告诉路透社，一些从隧道里逃出来的人说，他的兄弟还在里面。“他们说能听到里面大约200到300人的喊叫声，”他说。

尼泊尔军队/供图/路透社

“别惊慌”：两名男子如何从被洪水淹没的尼泊尔发电厂获救

救援队在包括印度和中国在内的其他国家专家的协助下，正集中力量搜救这些水电站。尼泊尔军方周六表示，当局也在努力营救那些被洪水围困的民众，并重建横跨河流的临时桥梁。

尼泊尔外交部周六表示，洪水导致尼泊尔全国超过7500户房屋和约55公里（34英里）的道路受损，数千人需要人道主义援助，但进入该地区的道路却受到严重限制。

据联合国一份报告显示，约有 35,000 人需要安全的临时住所，另有 43,000 人面临粮食不安全风险。

CNN的Kosh Raj Koirala、Bhadra Sharma、Charlotte Reck和Catherine Nicholls对此报道亦有贡献。