China continues efforts to reopen road to mudslide-hit Gyirong Port: What makes rescue access so difficult?

Rescue teams were working to reopen the final stretch of road into the core area of Gyirong Port in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region on Saturday, as search and rescue operations continued after a deadly mudslide struck the border area.

A mudslide in Nepal caused extensive damage to the port area on Wednesday, causing heavy casualties and leaving hundreds missing at Gyirong Port in Gyirong County, Xigaze City.

As of 1 a.m. on Saturday, seven people had been killed and 554 others remained missing, while two local villagers had been rescued, according to the region's emergency management department.

Rescue forces continued to advance toward the core area of Gyirong Port on Saturday, laying ropes through difficult terrain to reach key locations for detailed inspections and systematic searches.

Road repairs push deeper into the disaster area

With continuous rain swelling the river and increasing the speed of its flow, rescue teams adjusted their approach and focused on reopening the G216 national highway, the only land route to Gyirong Port.

The road has been extensively damaged, with the roadbed along the final kilometer to the port completely washed away.

As the risk from an upstream barrier lake became manageable, rescue and engineering teams stepped up both search operations and road repairs on Saturday. China Anneng Construction Group deployed more than 20 pieces of specialized machinery to accelerate work on the highway.

Zhong Wenjun, head of China Anneng's Chengdu rescue base, said about 70 personnel were working at the highway repair site. Around 150 meters of road had been reopened on Saturday morning.

After several days of work by multiple engineering rescue teams, about 2.6 kilometers of the road had been reopened as of Saturday.

The work becomes progressively more demanding as teams progress deeper into the disaster area. Some sections still retain parts of the original roadbed, while farther ahead the roadbed has been severely washed away, leaving mud and rocks.

On Saturday afternoon, the first batch of steel reinforcement frames sent by the Xizang regional transport authorities reached the site. The frames will be made into steel cages and filled with rocks to form stable structures, which will then be placed along the damaged sections to rebuild a stretch of nearly 1 kilometer of completely washed-out road.

Earlier on Saturday, rescuers said mud-clearing work on the front section had largely been completed, allowing heavy machinery to move in. Construction had advanced to a point near a bend in the river, about 1.8 kilometers from Gyirong Port.

Why is the road so difficult to reopen?

The first professional rescue teams reached the core area on the afternoon of August 28.

At about 4:30 p.m., the first team of six members from the Xizang Fire and Rescue Corps and the first group of 15 members with a search dog from the Sichuan Fire and Rescue Corps arrived at the disaster-hit port. They were the first professional rescue teams to reach the core rescue area, the National Fire and Rescue Administration said.

The teams used life-detection equipment to search the area before withdrawing to a safer position in the mountains overnight, following weather conditions and warnings related to the upstream barrier lake. More than 60 land-based rescuers remained assembled and on standby.

Tian Bingwei, an associate professor at Sichuan University's Institute of Disaster Reconstruction and Management, said the conditions of the barrier dam required rescue teams to remain alert.

Material brought down from upstream contained large amounts of ice and snow, leaving the barrier dam with high water content and relatively soft ground, Tian said. The ice avalanche that triggered the disaster also left a mixture of ice, rocks, glacial debris, mud and sediment in the barrier lake, making the dam less stable.

The barrier lake naturally began releasing water the previous day, and its risk was considered manageable on Saturday.

According to the latest remote-sensing analysis by the Ministry of Water Resources on Saturday evening, the size of the barrier lake had shrunk, with water flowing out naturally and the barrier body largely drained.

Rescue teams continued to monitor the lake around the clock. China Anneng installed slope radar and deployed drones around the barrier lake to track changes in the terrain and water conditions.

The monitoring system is intended to provide timely warnings so rescuers downstream can move to safety if conditions change, allowing search and rescue operations to continue while risks are kept under close watch.

Dai Zili, deputy secretary-general of the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction, said the rugged terrain along the China-Nepal border was another major obstacle to rescue efforts. The Nepal side has relatively flatter terrain in the river valleys, making access easier, while China's Xizang side is at a higher elevation and features more mountains and deep valleys, making it much harder to move personnel and supplies into the area.

China, Nepal coordinate rescue efforts

China and Nepal have also strengthened coordination on rescue and relief efforts following the disaster.

At the request of Nepal's government, China's Ministry of Emergency Management dispatched five Chinese tunnel experts to Nepal on Saturday. The experts flew by helicopter from Gyirong and arrived in the disaster area at 4:58 p.m. Beijing Time, immediately joining rescue work at a hydropower station tunnel.

Four more Chinese tunnel experts were subsequently sent to Nepal to support tunnel rescue operations.

Nepal and China moved quickly to coordinate rescue and relief efforts after the mudslide, Nepal's Consul General in Lhasa Laxmi Prasad Niraula said.

Speaking to China Media Group (CMG) on Thursday, Niraula said Nepali pilgrims who had traveled through Gyirong Port en route to Mount Kailash had been properly accommodated, with necessary support provided through coordination between the Nepali Consulate General in Lhasa and the government of Xizang Autonomous Region.

The pilgrims will later return to Nepal via alternative border crossings, while the two sides are also jointly collecting information on those who entered China for pilgrimage through Gyirong Port, he said.

On the Nepal side, local police said on Saturday that the death toll from floods in northern Nepal had risen to 675 as of 5:30 p.m.

Relief supplies and donations continue to reach the disaster area

Relief supplies and financial support have continued to be sent to the disaster area. On Saturday afternoon, two helicopters were dispatched to the core area of Gyirong Port, carrying food, medicine and rescue equipment for personnel working at the site.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and Macao Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai on Saturday expressed condolences to those killed in the mudslide and sympathy to their families and those affected by the disaster.

Lee said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government had set aside 50 million Hong Kong dollars ($6.4 million) from its Disaster Relief Fund, with the fund's advisory committee to process funding applications as soon as possible.

The Macao government said it would donate 30 million yuan ($4.2 million) through the Macao Foundation to the Xizang Autonomous Region to support rescue and relief efforts and follow-up work in the affected areas.