Headteacher saves 900 children from deadly flash flood in Nepal

Nepalese headteacher Rajendra Dawadi is being hailed as a hero after he evacuated nearly 900 students from Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot just minutes before a devastating flash flood struck the region. Dawadi acted swiftly after receiving multiple warnings from upstream areas, including Betrawati, about the impending disaster. The floods, which have killed at least 781 people and left thousands missing, have caused widespread destruction across Nepal, with 69 schools damaged or destroyed and nearly 19,000 children affected.

Dawadi made the decision to halt classes and move the students to higher ground after receiving four separate warnings within minutes. "I decided I shouldn’t delay any more," he told the BBC. "Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day’s classes." During the evacuation, Dawadi witnessed a hostel building about 100 meters from the river being swallowed by the floodwaters. "If we had made the decision 10 minutes later, all of us, including the students and me, would not be able to speak to you today," he said.

One student, Yunisha, 16, recounted her harrowing escape. She and her friends survived by just 10 seconds as they ran up a muddy path while water and debris inundated the town. "Within no time, the bazaar was swept away in front of my eyes," she said. Yunisha was reunited with her family three days later.

The disaster, which struck the Nepal-Tibet border region of the Himalayas on Wednesday morning, was triggered by a glacial collapse that sent a wall of water and debris cascading downstream, according to the US Geological Survey. The floods have left more than 2,500 people out of contact, including 592 foreigners, and over 3,700 people have been rescued so far.

In Dhading, one of the worst-hit areas, schoolchildren survived when they left their classrooms for lunch break just as the floodwaters arrived. Teachers in the area also played a crucial role in evacuating students. The mother of one child told the Associated Press that teachers had warned students to leave their belongings behind and evacuate quickly, allowing them to escape safely.

Nepal’s foreign minister has called for a global response to the climate crisis, emphasizing that Nepali people have disproportionately become "major victims of climate change" despite contributing minimally to global fossil fuel emissions.

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