00:00The Tibet disaster zone, we'll get your ground report from there.
00:03The road clearance work is underway.
00:05CGTN's Gong Ming is now joining us with the latest.
00:11Gong Ming, can you show us the terrain behind you
00:14where the road clearance operation is currently underway in the disaster hit Tibet?
00:22Yeah, sure.
00:23Now I'm actually at the National Highway G216 repair site.
00:30And this is about 1.6 kilometers away from the original Jerome port,
00:37which is severely damaged in this devastating mudslide.
00:41And you can see behind me that about 50 meters.
00:46And the engineering rescue team right now is trying to,
00:53because first you can see all these parts have been submerged
00:57up to five meters after the mudslide.
01:01And now, so engineering team, what they're trying to do
01:04is to transfer the big rocks from the other county
01:08and to bring all these rocks come here
01:13and to try to pave the new roads.
01:17And you can imagine, because you can see the surrounding,
01:20the water level here is very fast.
01:23It's more than like five meters per second.
01:27That's created a big, huge difficulty to the working there.
01:31And also you can see the terrain here.
01:34It's very, very narrow.
01:36It's a narrow valley, riverbed.
01:38And in that part, also the road,
01:43the road you can see, all the traps on that.
01:46It's all that they use, all these rocks to make protection
01:55to prevent the water, to stop the water, go inside.
01:59And then in order for them to fill up the things
02:04and then they can make this a new road.
02:07And Gong Ming, what are the obstacles and the challenges
02:10that are being faced in clearing these final few kilometers over here?
02:16Yeah, first, it's like,
02:18so first you can see from the terrain,
02:22there is a curve.
02:23And actually there are two curves in France.
02:26And today they have the three very important parts.
02:30That's, first, they have to overcome this speedy water level
02:35and also to overcome the weather
02:37because the weather is very changeable.
02:39It can rain constantly.
02:41And also they need all these rocks to transfer from far away place.
02:49So that is the biggest obstacle.
02:52And also, at the same time,
02:56we have to monitor all the situation in this place
02:59because there are some barrier leaks
03:03that have been formed in the upstream.
03:07So that can force a risk at any time.
03:11So they have used all these AI monitoring equipment
03:14to monitor the situation.
03:17Yeah, that's, well, that's what we so far got here.
03:21And also go inside, though.
03:23Okay, wait, wait, wait.
03:24There's one more important thing.
03:26Actually, further down,
03:27there are two waterfalls inside.
03:30So the rescue team has to avoid all these risks
03:35and trying to pave the new way.
03:38Right, Gong Ming, do stay with us.
03:40So India today is exclusively getting you these visuals,
03:44this report from near the Gairong port.
03:47This is the national highway which is being cleared
03:49and the clearance operation is still underway.
03:52There are a lot of hurdles which are being faced
03:53in the last few kilometers.
03:55Gong Ming is getting us all the details.
03:57Gong Ming also tell us,
03:59is there an estimated timeline
04:01in which this clearance operation will be over
04:04and then the highway will be operational?
04:08Yeah, it's actually from the,
04:10when we just get some information from the China MNPC,
04:13so far they have advanced 553 meters
04:17and now there are still 1.15 meters left.
04:23But among this 1.15 meters,
04:26about around like eight meters
04:29are all submerged under the water.
04:32And also that is the hardest part to pave the new way.
04:35So they are working overnight already two days.
04:40And today they're also going to work overnight
04:42to try to click on the club
04:45and try racing against the plan,
04:47trying to fill up all the roads.
04:51And the quickest time they predict,
04:54maybe tomorrow morning.
04:56Yeah, so we also hope that looking forward
04:59that they can pave the way
05:01and make it to the port,
05:02then they can begin to have
05:05the four-scale rescue operations.
05:08Right, so tomorrow morning is the deadline
05:11till when we can expect...
05:13That is the predictable time.
05:16All right, that is the estimated timeline
05:18when this clearance operation will be over
05:22and the road will be operational once again.
05:25Gong Ming, can you also tell us about the machinery,
05:27the kind of equipments which are being used in this operation?
05:31Okay, first, in the side,
05:34you can see all these traps now
05:36just going, passing constantly
05:39to transfer all these big routes
05:41that they get from the other rivers.
05:44So you can see here, clearly.
05:47And then just go deep further.
05:49Just follow me.
05:50Just go deep further.
05:52Because we actually cannot go inside further
05:55because inside it's very, very dangerous.
05:58All the road is not stable right now.
06:01So inside, they use the...
06:04They use the professional,
06:06the mechanical stuff first
06:09to get some of the mud from the river
06:12to pave the way.
06:15And then they use the big routes
06:17to make this roadbed protection
06:19to prevent the water to come in,
06:22to wash away all the mud,
06:24all the sand that they already put there.
06:27And also, from here, I cannot see it,
06:29but they also use some of the AI monitoring equipment
06:33inside to monitor the situation
06:37in the mountain, in the upstream.
06:39Yeah, that's what they, so far, they use.
06:44And Gong Ming, what is the death toll in China?
06:46Because we know about the death toll in Nepal,
06:49about how many people are missing,
06:51but not much is known about what's happening in China.
06:53What is the death toll,
06:54and how many people are still missing?
06:57Yeah, actually, from yesterday's,
06:59the latest press conference,
07:02the death toll has already rising to 16,
07:05with the 546 persons still missing.
07:09That's the latest, the latest death toll.
07:14But actually, after the road,
07:18these days, they're also sending some personnel,
07:23rescue personnel, from the air into the court site
07:26to do more rescue.
07:28So we're not sure if the death toll has the right end yet,
07:32but we are just waiting for the latest information.
07:37All right, Gong Ming, do stay with us.
07:39We're also showing our viewers the visuals
07:41of what exactly unfolded in Tibet on 26th of August.
07:46This is how deadly it was.
07:48As you can see, the visuals itself show how the deadly,
07:52the flash floods were,
07:54the scale of the devastation, the destruction,
07:56and the clearance work, for that matter, is still underway.
07:59It's been five days.
08:00It's a race against time to rescue the ones who are trapped,
08:05the ones who are missing.
08:06But so far, the roads have not been able to be cleared.
08:10There are a lot of other challenges as well,
08:13including the weather and including the weather conditions
08:16because there's continuous rainfall also,
08:18as Gong Ming was mentioning.
08:19Gong Ming, how is the weather over there?
08:22Is rainfall also posing as a major challenge
08:25for the rescue teams?
08:29It's one of the unpredictable items here.
08:32So just maybe half an hour ago,
08:35there are still some more rainfall just coming down.
08:39And also we get what we know from the team
08:41that yes, to the night, it's also raining constantly.
08:46So, and if it's raining in this actually deep valley site,
08:51the fog, the fog, and also the humidity
08:54will create a lot, will cut the visibility in front line.
08:59So that is one of the unpredictable risks
09:05to prevent the state of the rescue operation.
09:11Right, and Gong Ming, tell us more about
09:15what you are observing over there.
09:17How is this rescue operation going?
09:19If you can also speak to some of the workers
09:21who are there and if they could also tell you
09:25about their experience.
09:28The thing is, right now, all the experts,
09:32they are all inside, just trying to value the situation there.
09:38And so that's why, so far we cannot talk to any people
09:43because they are still working very, very busy at site.
09:48So maybe later, later we will try to talk to some of the experts
09:52and some of the engineering workers.
09:54Right, Gong Ming, one final question.
09:56You know, there are also allegations and reports
09:59that this flash flood happened because of the construction
10:06that is underway by the Chinese side
10:08and that is what led to this natural disaster.
10:13Sir, can you repeat the question again?
10:16So there are reports and allegations that it is the Chinese construction
10:20that led to these flash floods in Nepal and Tibet.
10:26Chinese construction?
10:27You mean?
10:29Construction in the Himalayan region.
10:33No, this is information we haven't got this.
10:37Because so far, at the press conference,
10:39the experts already confirmed that the cost for this mudslide
10:45is because of the glacial broke in the high mountain,
10:50around 5,000 meters on the top of the snow mountain.
10:55And then that caused the mudslide to crush over the valley
11:00because so that is, so far, we got the main reason to cross this flood.
11:06All right, Gong Ming, thank you for getting us all those details
11:10right from the ground.
11:12India Today is exclusively getting you this report
11:14and these visuals right from China,
11:17where the road clearance operation is still underway.
11:20The estimated timeline is till tomorrow morning.
11:23Tomorrow morning is when the road is expected to be cleared fully.
11:27The last few kilometers are only left,
11:31but that is where the real challenge lies.
11:33In fact, the weather is also posing as a major challenge
11:36because there's continuous rainfall.
11:38In fact, the water level is also rising.
11:41So these are some of the obstacles in the road clearing operation.
11:45But what we're also learning,
11:46and the information that is not much available,
11:50is that 546 people are still missing in China.
11:54This is the figure coming from China,
11:56whereas hundreds have also died.
12:00This is what we are learning.
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