Nepalese hydropower workers have shared harrowing accounts with the BBC about the moment water from the Trishuli River crashed into their tunnel during deadly flash floods that hit the region last week.

Floods Displaced and Destroyed Homes

The ordeal began with a sudden, strong gust of air, according to Pemba Dundu Tamang, whose team of about 30 was constructing the tunnel’s concrete lining. The blast of wind sent plywood flying and dislodged heavy machinery. Just outside, homes had already been swept away.

“I ran towards the tunnel entrance,” Tamang said. “The water was chasing behind me and I was running ahead of it.” Tamang lost several family members who were at home at the time.

Search and Rescue Efforts Continue

Nepal’s death toll has exceeded 1,000 after the devastating floods, with officials reporting about 4,000 missing. A number of the missing, potentially in the hundreds, are laborers like Tamang, working in a vast network of tunnels at hydropower sites along the river. Engineers have been pumping air into these tunnels as part of a significant rescue operation.

“We are focused on search-and-rescue efforts at the tunnels, our work is continuing,” Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP news agency. “Our soldiers are also deployed to collect bodies and prevent the spread of disease.”

Tamang ran for about 20 minutes to flee the violent deluge, which followed him uphill. “I was almost unconscious with shock. I could not think clearly,” he said. His colleague, Itha Ghale, noted the powerful gust of air almost blew them away as they sprinted.

Hydropower Projects and Future Concerns

Over 99% of the electricity generated in Nepal comes from hydropower, and Tamang and Ghale had been working at a major production site helping to build the Upper Trishuli 3B Hydropower Project. The plant, due to open next year, was designed to re-use water from a hydroelectric plant further upstream to generate additional electricity for Nepal’s national grid.

“I could see where my house should have been. There was nothing left. That was when I realised everything was gone,” Tamang said. Six of his relatives—his mother, elder brother and sister-in-law and three of their children—are gone. Only his wife, son and one nephew survived.

“I feel life is meaningless now. Surviving feels miserable. I do not know where to eat or where to go,” Tamang said. “The dead are at peace. It is those of us who survived who suffer.” Ghale, who lost eight family members, said he does not know why he survived. “Perhaps it was not my fate to die,” he said.

Tamang dreads the future, especially if these hydropower projects are shut down. “If things continue like this, we will go hungry. Sometimes I feel it would have been better not to survive,” he said. Tamang ultimately managed to take refuge with a few others in the village of Shanti Bazar for two days until the army came to rescue them. He estimates about 50 to 60 workers were able to escape the tunnel alongside him.

He says more people could have been saved if proper resources had been in place. This is echoed by a new report which says there was evidence of growing instability around the glacier in the days before the disaster, and that better early warning systems could have saved lives.