How engineers in a WhatsApp group are guiding Nepal’s tunnel rescue efforts

(Reuters)

KATHMANDU, Sept 4 – An army of experts in a WhatsApp group is guiding rescue workers scouring a Nepali valley after a huge flash flood more than a week ​ago as they desperately search for anyone who may be alive inside tunnels of devastated hydropower plants.

The messaging group was set up by engineers before the wall of water, mud and rock crashed down ‌the Trishuli valley in Nepal on August 26. It has since become a valuable tool alongside helicopters and heavy machinery in the race to find survivors.

The authorities hope some of the about 900 people reported missing from six hydropower plants – at least three of which were under construction – may have escaped the deluge because they worked in or fled into the tunnels.

In a first sign of success, two people were brought out alive from a tunnel linked to the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower plant on Friday, nine days after the disaster. One of them said ​there could be more survivors in the tunnels.

Even finding entrances to some of the tunnels, which were designed to channel water or used to access hydropower facilities, is tough now after the flood deposited 2.2 million ​tonnes of mud and debris down the valley.