Nepal school principal Rajendra Dawadi (inset) helped save 1,643 children after ordering an evacuation as deadly flash floods swept through the Trishuli Valley.
A school principal in Nepal is being praised for helping save 1,643 children after he ordered their evacuation just minutes before devastating flash floods swept through the Trishuli Valley.
Rajendra Dawadi, 47, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot district, received an urgent warning on Wednesday (August 26) that floodwaters were rapidly approaching.
About 900 students were already at the school, while another 700 were travelling there by foot or school bus.
Dawadi told The Times that a friend in Betrawati, about 8km upstream, called to warn him that the village had been swept away. “He said the village was gone: taken by the river. He told me to run,” Dawadi recalled. Soon afterwards, a parent arrived at the school and warned that the water was rising rapidly.
Knowing the school was close to the river, Dawadi rang the school bell and ordered an immediate evacuation to higher ground. He later explained his decision, saying: “Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day’s classes.”
Dawadi then remembered that several school buses carrying students were still travelling towards the school. Each bus could carry up to about 80 children.
He frantically contacted the drivers and instructed them to turn around. He managed to reach all but one of the drivers by phone. The final bus was already crossing a steel bridge near the school when Dawadi spotted it. With floodwater beginning to enter the school grounds, he managed to signal to the driver to turn back. The bus reached safety shortly before the bridge collapsed into the raging river.
As the students moved uphill on foot, Dawadi carried out a final sweep of the school grounds before leaving. Within about 10 minutes of the evacuation order, the torrent of water, mud, ice and debris had engulfed the school buildings.
The children eventually gathered beneath a large tree on the hillside, where they waited for the floodwaters to subside. All 1,643 students survived.
Dawadi later joined a group of around 40 to 50 students and teachers who became stranded on the hillside after communication lines were cut. The group remained isolated for three days with limited supplies before search and rescue teams reached them on Friday (August 28).
Two members of the school community were not so fortunate. Social history teacher Santos Pariyar, 32, was killed after returning to his accommodation beside the river. School janitor Sultan Lama was also swept away after returning towards the school.
Despite being credited by locals with saving the children, Dawadi played down his actions. “What else could I do?” he said while surveying the destruction.
Deadly Nepal floods continue
The rescue at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School came as Nepal and neighbouring Tibet faced one of the region’s deadliest recent natural disasters.
A glacier and rock collapse near the Nepal-China border on Wednesday sent a massive surge of water, ice, mud and debris through mountain river systems. The flooding destroyed homes, bridges, roads and other infrastructure across affected areas.
Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) reported that hundreds of bodies had been recovered from several affected districts, with thousands of people still unaccounted for.
By Sunday (August 30), the number of deaths reported in Nepal had reached at least 752 according to an NDRRMA bulletin, while Nepal Police later reported a toll of 788. The figures have varied as authorities continue to recover and identify bodies.
More than 2,500 people remained missing in Nepal, according to the latest official figures, while thousands had been rescued from flood-affected areas. China reported additional deaths and missing people in Tibet, bringing the combined toll across Nepal and Tibet to more than 800 according to the latest reports.
Rescue teams have continued searching affected communities while authorities monitor the risk of further flooding.
Bodies buried as families await identification
Nepal has begun burying some unidentified victims after collecting DNA samples and recording identifying information so that bodies can potentially be returned to families later.
The decision reflects the scale of the disaster and the difficulty of storing and identifying hundreds of recovered bodies. Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai said the country needs international assistance, including more than 1,000 freezer units to store bodies.
The disaster has also left major parts of the country’s infrastructure damaged, complicating rescue and relief operations. ICA/CAM/Expat Media
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