Nepal flood survivor's family in China relieved after days of anxious waiting

Audio By Carbonatix

HONG KONG (AP) — After days of waiting anxiously, Lu Haitao's family could finally breathe a sigh of relief when the Chinese man was rescued from a tunnel in Nepal where devastating floods killed more than 1,300 people.

Rescuers carried out Lu from a 225-meter (740-foot) hydropower tunnel and evacuated him by helicopter Saturday, 10 days after the floods. He was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The Aug. 26 floods were likely caused by a glacier collapse, and nearly 4,900 remain missing in the South Asian country, according to Nepal’s disaster management agency.

Lu recalled climbing to the highest point inside the tunnel and thinking the whistles he heard from the rescue crews were in his imagination, according to audio shared by CCTV. He told a Chinese embassy staffer that the emergency personnel initially could not hear him when he shouted toward their lights.

“When they shone before my eyes, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I no longer shouted. I had lost hope.”

Lu Hairong, Lu’s sister in China, told state media Red Star News that she received a call about the rescue before the news emerged. But she only found it believable after seeing him in a picture in the news.

Her 49-year-old brother, who is married with a son, was previously a farmer from Henan province in central China and took additional work, mainly carpentry, during his spare time. He headed to Nepal for work with a fellow villager in February, his first time working abroad, she told Red Star News.

She told Cover News, another Chinese state media outlet, that Lu had not shared his exact working location and she could only watch the news sent by others in a mutual aid group for families of the missing, unable to eat or sleep well.

“It’s a stroke of sheer luck amid the misfortune,” she said of the rescue.

Lu’s cousin, Lu Haiqing, said her mind went blank after learning he was missing on the sixth day after the floods. She then searched for Nepal news every day and used artificial intelligence to translate Nepali to Chinese. She wept every day on her way to work, Chinese news portal Jiupai News reported.

On Saturday, Lu's cousin received a picture from his sister asking her to help confirm his identity. The man looked very similar but she needed to call another relative to help confirm, the report said.

“This day has finally come,” she was quoted as saying. “There is hope when one doesn't give up.”

On the Tibet side of the border, 43 people died and 519 were missing, of whom 261 were foreigners, as of Saturday evening, CCTV reported.

Rescuers operated excavators to search for those unaccounted for after a mudslide hit the Gyirong border facility and swallowed people, according to videos from foreign media pool coverage on a government-organized trip.

The border crossing area was seen Sunday covered by fragments of rocks and gravel, with yellow chrysanthemums being laid on the ground in the disaster zone in an apparent tribute to the victims.