Minutes before disaster: Nepal principal recalls saving 1,600 students as flash floods washed away his school
By Vihsu Adhana, Bidur, August 31
When devastating flash floods struck Nepal's Nuwakot district on August 26, a quick decision by Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School Principal Rajendra Dawadi helped save the lives of nearly 1,600 students, as he and his staff evacuated the school minutes before floodwaters swept away the entire campus.
Recalling the terrifying moments, Dawadi said the situation changed rapidly after he received information about the flood while classes were underway.
"At the time I got information, I was in a class. Within minutes, all teachers gathered and took the decision to vacate the school. We rang the school bell to alert," Dawadi told ANI.
He said around 900 students were present inside the school at that time, and authorities immediately stopped school buses from approaching the campus.
"At this time, 900 students were present in the school. We also stopped school buses from reaching here. The moment one of the school buses crossed the new bridge, the old one collapsed," he said.
Dawadi said the students and teachers rushed towards higher ground for safety, and from there they witnessed the devastating impact of the flood.
"We all climbed uphill, and when we looked back, we saw the whole school was washed away," he said.
Describing the scale of destruction, Dawadi said, "The devastation is beyond imagination."
One of the school's teachers, Santosh Parihar, remains missing after the disaster.
Dawadi said rebuilding the school at a safer location is now a priority. "Education is very important, and we need to re-establish the school at a safe site. We will need the help of donations," he said.
The incident comes as Nepal continues to grapple with the aftermath of one of its worst flood disasters, with the death toll rising to 903 and thousands of people still missing.
According to Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), around 4,247 people remain missing, while 10,451 people have been rescued so far.
Families of missing people have been gathering at help centres in Bidur, searching through lists of missing and deceased persons and waiting for information about their loved ones.
Meanwhile, with morgues running out of space, authorities have begun burying unidentified bodies recovered from the Trishuli and Narayani riverbanks in a forest in Chitwan, following DNA sample collection. An official at the site said the process followed ICRC protocols, with each body assigned a unique identification code.
— ANI
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