How Engineers in a WhatsApp Group Are Guiding Nepal's Tunnel Rescue Efforts
More than 500 engineers are sharing tunnel drawings and access details to help rescuers locate missing workers after the glacier collapse.
- In Nepal, an army of experts is using a WhatsApp group to guide rescue workers scouring devastated hydropower plants after a massive glacier collapse last week killed more than 1,200 people.
- The catastrophic flood deposited 2.2 million tonnes of mud and debris, wiping out 10% of Nepal's generation capacity and burying tunnel entrances across six hydroelectric sites.
- Experts used layout drawings shared via the messaging app to locate tunnels, a strategy that successfully led to the rescue of two workers from the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower plant on Friday, nine days after the disaster.
- More than 4,000 people remain missing, with officials noting that 46 people may be trapped inside a chamber at the Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, where rescue efforts continue.
- Rajesh Shrestha awaits news of his 30-year-old son, Rajish, an environmental engineer at Upper Trishuli 1, as families across the region hold onto hope for those still unaccounted for.
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30 Articles
‘Survivable pockets’: Australian tunnel expert arrives in Nepal as two people rescued after 10 days
Arnold Dix landed in Kathmandu confident in the hope of finding more survivors trapped hundreds of metres below the earth as another man was brought out alive 10 days after the floods.
After the heavy destruction due to flood in Nepal, the rescue work is going on fast. Instant messaging app is now being used in this rescue operation. Before the flood, a team of engineers had created a WhatsApp group and now that group is being used in rescue.
Inside Nepal’s tunnel rescue operation guided by Whatsapp group of 500 experts
Authorities hope that 900 people missing across hydropower plants may have escaped the floods inside tunnels
Rescue efforts have been slowed down by, among other things, "car-sized" rocks blocking the tunnels, which have had to be blasted out of the way.
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