Rajendra Dawadi, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal, successfully evacuated 1,643 students after receiving an urgent warning about a flash flood on Wednesday. The disaster, triggered by a glacier collapse at Langtang Lirung peak, sent torrents of debris through the Trishuli Valley, destroying the school buildings shortly after the students fled to higher ground.
Dawadi acted within minutes, ringing the school bell and coordinating an immediate evacuation as floodwaters rose rapidly. While the principal and most staff survived, social history teacher Santos Pariyar and janitor Sultan Lama were killed after returning to the riverbank area.
He called the school bus drivers, telling all but one to turn back. Then he saw the bus he could not reach crossing the bridge.
By then, the children were beginning to realise they were in danger. One girl suffered a panic attack and was taken uphill on a motorbike. The others fled on foot, with Dawadi following behind, according to The Times.
The children eventually took shelter beneath a bodhi tree as the floodwaters swept away their school buildings.
Locals have called Dawadi a hero for saving the children. But he is less convinced. "What else could I do?" he said while surveying the muddy ruins where the school once stood.
The catastrophic flooding has claimed over 750 lives in Nepal and 16 in Tibet, with thousands more reported missing across the region. Geomorphologists estimate the ice and rock mass that triggered the surge covered nearly 50 acres, causing widespread destruction to infrastructure throughout the area.
