2 people rescued alive from tunnel after deadly Nepal-Tibet flash flood
Soldiers rescue a worker alive from a tunnel during an ongoing operation at the Trishuli-3A hydropower project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, Sept. 4, 2026. (Nepal Army)
LONDON — Two people have been rescued from a hydropower tunnel at the Trishuli 3A construction site, Nepal’s Army confirmed Friday after posting videos and images from the scene on Facebook.
Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane, an engineer who has been involved in the search operations, also posted about the two rescues on his Facebook page, including photos and videos from the scene.
He identified the two workers rescued as Sanjay Sah and Kabir Maharjan.
In an earlier Facebook post, Neupane said rescuers had heard voices from people trapped inside the tunnel.
“It has been confirmed that more than one person’s voice has been heard from inside,” Neupane wrote in the post. “When the rescue team said, ‘Don’t panic, we are rescuing,’ a response of ‘yes’ was received from inside.”
After being rescued, Sah, a mechanical foreman, said in a video published by the Nepali Army on Friday that his responsibility was to save the lives of the others in the tunnel because he was in the control room.
“I told everyone that there was a big accident on the big dam, and asked everyone to run and in the end, I ran out of time and could not run out,” Sah said in the video, which was translated from Nepali.
At least 557 workers are missing from the Trishuli 3A hydropower projects along the Trishuli River, with about 115 believed to be trapped in the tunnel, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal.
Nepal’s Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina said officials remain hopeful that more workers will be rescued. “We are waiting for the rescue of more and more people,” Timilsina wrote on his Facebook page.
Sah said there seemed to be three or four more people still stuck in the tunnel, and possibly even more, as the tunnel is long and some may have been swept deeper inside.
Holding onto hope, Sah said he was chanting mantras while he was trapped.
The death toll following last week’s unprecedented flash flood at the Nepal-Tibet border has climbed to 1,287, with an additional 4,216 people believed to still be missing as of Thursday, officials said.
Those figures increased from 1,114 deaths and 3,916 missing people, respectively, a day earlier, according to Nepal’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Chinese state media have reported an additional 16 deaths and 546 missing people in Tibet, bringing the total death toll to 1,268 and the number of missing people on both sides of the border to 4,762.
Relief and rescue efforts are continuing, with almost all communication towers restored and nearly 12,000 people rescued through international and domestic aid.
Additionally, almost 21,500 security personnel have been mobilized in an effort to speed up search and rescue operations, with more than 5,000 people receiving treatment for injuries, officials said.
Nepali Prime Minister Shah said earlier this week that his government would begin focusing on “rehabilitation” as the length of time since the initial disaster grows.
(NEW YORK) — A police officer was shot and killed while executing a search warrant Thursday as part of an investigation into a series of shootings in Toronto, including one at the United States consulate in March, authorities said.
The officer, 43-year-old Marc Pinizzotto with the department’s emergency task force, was “shot in the line of duty while conducting a search warrant early this morning,” Toronto Police Service Chief Myron Demkiw said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Pinizzotto was provided emergency care and transported to a local hospital, where he died, the chief said.
Police did not share additional details on the circumstances of the shooting. A suspect is in custody and receiving emergency medical treatment in the hospital, according to Demkiw, who did not share further details on the individual.
The investigation involving the search warrant and several others executed on Thursday “concerned a number of shootings,” including one at the U.S. consulate in Toronto on March 10, Demkiw said.
Witnesses observed two people emerge from a white Honda CR-V and discharge a handgun at the consulate before driving away, according to police. No one was injured during the incident. Officers got a call about the shooting around 5:29 a.m., and found shell casings and damage to the building when they arrived, police said.
A 19-year-old suspect wanted in connection with the investigation remains at large, Demkiw said Thursday.
The police chief identified the suspect as Zara Jabbi and warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous.
“I urge you to turn yourself in,” Demkiw said while addressing the suspect during the briefing.
(GERMANY) — The American doctor who contracted Ebola and was transferred to Germany is starting to feel better and is able to eat, according to his colleague.
Dr. Peter Stafford is currently hospitalized in Berlin’s Charite University Hospital after testing positive for the disease due to his work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
His colleague, Matt Allison — the executive director of Serge, the Christian missionary group Stafford works for — told ABC News that the doctor has been receiving monoclonal antibodies during his hospitalization.
Allison said it appears Stafford’s condition has improved since landing in Germany and that he has been able to text his colleagues.
“He needed assistance to walk. He was very weak. He was discouraged … he was talking about just being almost unable to think,” Allison said. “I mean [it] was the combination of the isolation, the uncertainty, feeling really sick. It was a lot to carry. And so I’m so glad that he’s responding quickly to us.”
Allison went on, “He feels good. He’s eating. You know, one of the symptoms of Ebola is nausea and gastrointestinal issues, and so we’re so grateful that he’s able to eat now and we’re really encouraged by where he’s at right now.”
Stafford, a 39-year-old board-certified general surgeon with a specialization in burn care, tested positive for Ebola after caring for patients in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, before an outbreak was identified.
His wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, 38, and Dr. Peter LaRochelle, 46, a fellow missionary doctor, were potentially exposed to Ebola through their work at hospitals in the DRC, Serge said.
Peter Stafford’s family will join him in Germany while LaRochelle is on his way to Prague.
“The complex, coordinated efforts of many government agencies and international health authorities resulted in Peter Stafford’s safe transport and the protection of those involved in his transfer,” Dr. Scott Myhre, Serge area director for East and Central Africa, said in a press release on Wednesday. “Serge leadership extends their deepest gratitude to all involved in Peter’s care and is praying for all involved in the fight to end this ebolavirus outbreak for the good of the people of the DRC.”
The Ebola outbreak in the eastern DRC had caused 139 suspected deaths with nearly 600 suspected cases as of Wednesday, according to the latest update from World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected,” Tedros said during a press briefing in Geneva.
Anais Legand, the WHO’s technical officer for viral hemorrhagic fevers, said on Wednesday that the Ebola outbreak may have started a couple of months ago and that investigations are ongoing.
“Our priority is really to cut the transmission chain by implementing contact tracing, isolating and caring for all suspects and confirmed cases,” she said
The WHO convened an emergency committee on Tuesday night, following Tedros’ declaration of a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday — one level below a pandemic in the United Nations agency’s alert system.
It was the first time a WHO chief had declared such an emergency before convening the emergency committee. After the meeting, the committee agreed that the outbreak did not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency, which was applied to the global COVID-19 outbreak.
The outbreak was first detected in the DRC’s northeastern province of Ituri, with cases officially confirmed by the health ministry on May 15. It marked the 17th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC, which is Africa’s second-largest country and its fourth-most populous nation.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics and which requires different diagnostics than other variants. Case fatality rates for previous Bundibugyo outbreaks have ranged from 30% to 50%, according to the WHO.
Tedros said cases of Ebola have been reported in several urban areas of the eastern DRC amid the ongoing outbreak, including the major cities of Goma and Bunia, and that at least two cases and one death have been recorded in neighboring Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Cases have also been reported among health workers, according to Tedros.
At least 51 cases have so far been confirmed in the ongoing outbreak.
The WHO chief warned that significant population movement in the region, which includes a high-traffic mining area, along with insecurity and intensified conflict in recent months increase the risk of further spread. The risks are high at the national and regional levels, but remain low globally, according to Tedros.
Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, confirmed at a CDC press conference on Tuesday that genetic testing from this outbreak shows it is similar to the “genetic fingerprints” from outbreaks in 2007 and 2012, meaning there are diagnostic tools available that can detect this strain of Ebola.
Pillai said on Monday that the agency had activated its Emergency Operations Center through its country offices in the DRC and in Uganda, and is deploying technical experts that have been requested from Atlanta headquarters.
The CDC said Monday that it is preparing to restrict entry for travelers arriving from parts of central Africa where an Ebola outbreak has been declared, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.
The risk to the U.S. general public remains low, Pillai said.
ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — El Nino conditions continue to intensify and are likely to be a strong event in the coming months, significantly influencing our weather, the hurricane season and global temperatures, according to the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
There is very high confidence that El Nino will continue through early spring 2027.
NOAA’s latest forecast calls for a strong El Nino to develop by the fall, with an 81% chance of a very strong El Nino between October and December, which could also end up being one of the strongest events on record. Historical records go back to 1950.
Stronger El Nino events only make certain impacts more likely and do not always guarantee strong impacts, NOAA noted.
El Nino refers to the warmer-than-average phase of the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a natural cycle where sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean rise and fall. The cooler-than-average phase is called La Nina, while near-average conditions are known as ENSO-neutral.
NOAA ranks the strength of El Nino events by measuring the sea surface temperature departure from average (anomaly) across this region, classifying events as weak, moderate, strong or very strong.
“El Nino conditions are already underway and are forecast to strengthen rapidly into a strong event,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a statement. “This will intensify the chances of drought and heavy rainfall and the risk of heatwaves on land and marine heatwaves in many regions of the world.”
While adjectives such as “super” and “extreme” are popular ways of describing the strength of an El Nino event on social media, NOAA and the WMO classify by strength. The WMO noted in a recent statement that “the term [[super]] is not part of standardized operational classifications.”
Typical El Nino impacts across the United States
Impacts from El Nino, similar to La Nina, tend to be most consistent and pronounced from late autumn through early spring following the event’s onset, NOAA says. There is usually a delay between the onset of the event and many of the associated effects.
“The more consistent impacts on precipitation and temperature don’t occur until the winter months — so for 2026-27,” Michelle L’Heureux, physical scientist at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said.
Experts caution that the impacts on weather patterns are nuanced. Each season is different, and typical El Nino conditions don’t always materialize.
“Every El Nino is different in terms of timing, magnitude, and geographic extent, and such differences lead to variability in the impacts — on temperatures and rainfall, for example — on a global scale,” Andrew Kruczkiewicz, senior staff researcher at Columbia Climate School, said.
Northeast: Warmer-than-average temperatures are favored across the northern half of the U.S. during meteorological winter (December to February), however its influence is less pronounced in the Northeast, compared to the Upper Midwest and Northwest.
El Nino typically increases the odds of above-average snowfall in the mid-Atlantic and coastal areas of the Northeast as storms often move up the coast. Farther inland, drier-than-average conditions and less snow are more likely.
South: During the winter months, near- to below-average temperatures are favored along the southern tier of the U.S., especially from Texas to the Southeast.
For precipitation, wetter-than-average conditions are typically observed across Texas, the Gulf Coast and Southeast. Below-average precipitation is frequently observed across parts of the south-central Mississippi Valley.
Midwest: Warmer-than-average temperatures are favored from the northern Plains into the Great Lakes in the winter. Drier-than-average conditions are frequently observed across parts of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes regions.
El Nino typically increases the odds of above-average snowfall in the south-central Plains with below-average snowfall favored in northern Plains and Great Lakes regions.
West: During the winter months, warmer-than-average temperatures are likely across much of the Northwest. For precipitation, wetter-than-average conditions are typically observed across southern California and much of the Southwest, with below-average precipitation frequently observed across parts of the northern Rockies.
El Nino typically increases the odds of above-average snowfall in the southern Rockies, with below-average snowfall favored in the northern Rockies.
Meanwhile, above-average tropical activity in the eastern Pacific increases the likelihood of indirect impacts to the southwestern U.S., such as sending more rain to the region and more frequent flash flood concerns.
Alaska: El Nino impacts in Alaska tend to be more pronounced than across much of the contiguous U.S., with the strongest effects typically occurring during the winter and spring months. During winter, warmer- and drier-than-average conditions are more likely, with less snowfall and reduced snowpack.
Above average temperatures often persist into spring, while precipitation trends closer to average. However, warmer conditions typically mean more precipitation falls as rain rather than snow, prolonging snow deficits.
Hawaii: Rainfall is typically above average across Hawaii the year an El Nino event develops before conditions become drier during the winter months and remain dry well into the following year. The shift toward drier weather can increase the likelihood of drought and elevate the risk of wildfires.
Meanwhile, above-average tropical activity in the eastern Pacific increases the risk of impacts from tropical systems across the Hawaiian Islands.
El Nino’s influence on hurricane season activity
While El Nino is only one of several key factors that influence tropical activity, forecasts now indicate it will be a strong event during the peak of the hurricane season, making it the primary driver of activity in both the Atlantic and eastern Pacific in the coming months.
El Nino conditions often suppress tropical activity during the Atlantic hurricane season by producing unfavorable atmospheric winds. In the Eastern Pacific, the opposite occurs, with favorable conditions supporting above-average hurricane season activity.
As a result, NOAA’s May 21 hurricane outlook is predicting below average tropical activity for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season with above average activity likely in the eastern Pacific.
“El Nino increases convection (thunderstorms) across the eastern and central Pacific, which causes downstream wind shear over the Atlantic from strong upper-level winds,” Andy Hazelton, an associate scientist at the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, said.
Vertical wind shear, which refers to changes in wind speed and direction with height in the atmosphere, is often a primary factor in below-average hurricane season activity. Strong vertical wind shear can tear a developing tropical system apart or even prevent it from forming, NOAA says.
“The rising motion over the Pacific also leads to increased subsidence (sinking air) over the Atlantic, which suppresses thunderstorms and tropical cyclone development,” Hazelton added.
Other factors, such as sea surface temperatures, also play an important role in tropical cyclone development and strength. Unseasonably warm ocean waters can partially offset the effects of unfavorable atmospheric winds, according to forecasters.
