KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal observed a national day of mourning Monday as rescue operations increasingly moved underground, into damaged hydropower tunnels where hundreds of workers are still believed to be missing.
The August 26 floods have killed more than 1,300 people across Nepal and Tibet and left about 5,000 missing, including foreign nationals, according to the latest Associated Press report citing Nepal’s disaster management agency. Government offices lowered flags to half-staff on the 13th day after the disaster, while families completed mourning rituals.
Search teams are now concentrating on 12 hydropower projects in Nepal. About 900 workers associated with those facilities remain unaccounted for, and roughly 500 are believed to have been in tunnels when the flooding struck. Officials have not said that all of those believed to be underground are alive, and the estimate remains part of an evolving missing-person count.
The tunnel rescues have become the most technically demanding part of the response. Floodwater and debris damaged roads, buried structures and blocked underground access routes. At some sites, teams have had to locate tunnel entrances beneath layers of mud and rock before they can even begin clearing passages.
Two Nepali workers were pulled alive from the Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel Friday, nine days after the flood. On Saturday, rescuers brought out a Chinese worker from a 225-meter tunnel. The successful operations gave families fresh hope after days in which access, rather than a lack of personnel, was often the main obstacle.
Specialised teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States are assisting Nepalese responders. The disaster has also affected broader infrastructure. Nepal’s Foreign Ministry reports widespread damage to houses, buildings, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities and other critical systems in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and other districts along the Bhote Koshi river corridor.
The flood is believed to have been triggered by a glacier collapse, though the exact causal sequence has not been presented as finally established. The event has renewed concern about how Himalayan communities and infrastructure are exposed to sudden high-altitude hazards, especially where steep valleys concentrate water, debris, roads and energy projects in the same narrow corridors.
In Kathmandu, relatives of missing hydropower workers demonstrated near the prime minister’s office and several ministries Monday. Some said they had received too little information about search attempts at specific project sites. Their protest underscored the gap between a national mourning ceremony and the unresolved status of thousands of individual cases.
The 13th day has particular importance in predominantly Hindu Nepal, where close relatives traditionally conclude a mourning period with prayers for the dead. Some families whose relatives are still missing have held symbolic funerals because bodies have not been recovered.
For rescue crews, the calendar offers no comparable endpoint. The next decisions will be determined tunnel by tunnel and road by road: whether heavy equipment can reach blocked sites, whether underground spaces remain stable and whether teams can establish contact with anyone still alive. The national day of mourning marked the scale of the loss. The rescue effort is still determining how much of that loss is final.