Rescue efforts intensify after Nepal-Tibet flooding as deaths climb past 900

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescuers were trying to find trapped workers in hydroelectric plant tunnels Monday after catastrophic flooding in Nepal and Tibet killed at least 900 people and left more than 4,700 missing.

Multiple foreign teams were assisting local rescuers to find workers in multiple tunnels at Nepal's power plants on the rivers that flooded last Wednesday. Officials say hundreds of workers were trapped.

In the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project, in the hard-hit Rasuwa district, more than 100 people were thought to be missing as of Saturday. Rescuers have been trying to find survivors for days, working through the rain.

“We are working in search and rescue of the stranded people from hills, settlements and river areas,” said Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, Nepal’s army spokesman.

Nepal’s disaster agency said Monday that 903 deaths had been counted in that country, with 4,247 people, including 592 foreigners, missing. As of Sunday, Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, and Chinese state media said 261 of the missing were foreigners, including over a hundred Nepalis.

On the Chinese side, rescue and recovery efforts included rebuilding the road leading to Gyirong Port at the border between China and Nepal.

Trucks carried giant rocks as workers worked on repaving a portion of the road, state broadcaster CCTV showed Monday, next to rapidly rushing waters, which have been made more powerful by rains in the past couple of days. The road is now under some 2 to 3 meters (6.6 -9.8 feet) of water, hampering rescuers' ability to reach the border. The repaving effort was just a little over a kilometer (.62 miles) from the border, CCTV said.

Although some rescue teams have managed to reach the border, that represented only a portion of the force.

Chinese state media coverage has focused largely on the official response, highlighting the deployment of firefighters, the People's Liberation Army as well as the instructions from top leaders. Little is known about victims on the Chinese side.

Wednesday’s flash floods started after a glacial collapse high in the Himalayan region. Scientists who studied satellite images said bedrock underneath a glacier high in the Himalayan region had collapsed, taking part of the glacier with it. The rockfall was so extreme that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event.

The rocks and melted water then swelled the rivers in the valleys below, causing a torrent of water that swept buildings, bridges and earth downstream in Tibet and Nepal.

AP writers Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok contributed to this report.