Rasuwa: two survivors, a valley still waiting

Sanjay Sah was on shift; Kabir Maharjan had come to carry out maintenance. On September 4, both men were brought out alive from the Trishuli 3A tunnel, nine days after the flood. The Kathmandu Post traced their different routes to the site. That distinction matters beyond their families: a power plant's regular staff list may not show everyone who was there that morning.^[1]

The picture changed later that day. In its 17:23 update, the Kathmandu Post reported that rescuers had reached the tunnel's farthest point: beyond the two survivors and one body, they found nobody else. The project chief discussed ending the search, subject to another inspection with his staff. That finding narrows the hope inside this tunnel; it neither establishes that everyone missing has died nor settles who was present across the construction sites.^[4]

The disaster extends far beyond this power station: Nepal's foreign ministry reported 1,252 bodies recovered across affected areas on September 3, a provisional count. It described Nepalese teams working with Indian, Chinese and South Korean specialists at several sites. That cooperation leaves the safety question open: could a worker have escaped in time even with a warning? Matching missing people to staff and visitors present should give families a reliable contact, with their relatives' personal information handled carefully.^[1][3]

The private Issue 05 preparation set a September 4 check for a public timeline linking the first cross-border signal to receipt of warnings in upper Rasuwa. The rescue accounts inspected do not complete that chain, so the test remains unresolved. The new site-by-site accounting check, due September 11, is additional; it does not make the warning question disappear.^[3][4]