Rajendra Dawadi, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, Nepal, helped save all 1,643 students from a devastating flash flood on August 26 after receiving multiple warnings that floodwaters were rapidly approaching.
About 900 children were at the school while others were travelling there when Dawadi stopped classes, rang the school bell and ordered everyone to higher ground. He also contacted school-bus drivers and turned vehicles back, with one bus reportedly crossing a bridge shortly before it collapsed.
The school was later swept away by torrents of water, mud, rocks and ice, but all students survived. Two school staff members, however, died after returning towards the river.
The wider disaster, triggered by a massive ice-and-rock collapse near Langtang Lirung, has since killed at least 903 people in Nepal and left 4,247 missing, according to the latest disaster authority figures reported on August 31.
Rescue teams, including support from India and China, are still searching for missing people and workers trapped in hydropower tunnels.
A Warning In Minutes
Dawadi, 47, was at school when he began receiving warnings about the approaching flood. At around 9.20am, a friend from Betrawati, upstream from the school, reportedly called to say that the village had been swept away and urged him to run.
A parent soon arrived with another warning that the river was rising rapidly. Although the three-storey concrete school stood about 60 metres above the Trishuli River and initially appeared safe, Dawadi decided the risk was too great to ignore. He rang the school bell and instructed teachers to evacuate the classrooms. “What else could I do?” he later said while looking at the muddy ruins of the school, after locals praised him for his actions.
The evacuation was not limited to students already inside the campus. Dawadi contacted school-bus drivers and asked them to turn around. One bus that he could not initially reach was already crossing a bridge when he spotted it. He managed to alert the driver, who turned back shortly before the bridge collapsed.
Students fled towards higher ground, with some running on foot and one girl reportedly being taken uphill on a motorbike after suffering a panic attack. The children eventually sheltered beneath a bodhi tree as the floodwaters tore through the school and surrounding buildings. Sixteen-year-old student Yunisha Amatya reportedly said she and her friends survived by about 10 seconds.
A Disaster Still Unfolding
The flood was part of a much larger catastrophe along the Nepal-China border. A huge mass of ice and rock broke away from the Langtang Lirung area and plunged roughly 1,200 metres into the upper gorge of the Lhende Khola, generating a destructive surge of water, mud, ice and debris downstream.
Geomorphologist Daniel Shugar of the University of Calgary estimated the collapsed mass covered nearly 50 acres. The torrent destroyed homes, bridges, roads and hydropower infrastructure across the region.
The humanitarian emergency has continued to worsen. Nepal’s latest figures put the death toll at 903 and the number of missing at 4,247. The disaster has also left hundreds of hydropower workers unaccounted for; Reuters reported that 933 workers were among those missing, while rescue teams were trying to reach people believed to be trapped inside tunnels in Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
Nepal has deployed security personnel and helicopters, while India has sent an 11-member specialist rescue team and China a nine-member tunnel-rescue team. Home Minister Sudan Gurung said rescuers had managed to drill into a hydropower tunnel and begin sending air through an opening, while officials warned that rain, rising river levels and unstable terrain were complicating the operation.
The tragedy has also exposed the importance of timely warnings in disaster-prone Himalayan communities. At Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, there was no sophisticated evacuation operation or lengthy preparation. There were warnings, a principal willing to act on them and teachers who moved quickly.
Two staff members, social studies teacher Santos Pariyar and school janitor Sultan Lama, did not survive after returning towards the river and school during the disaster. Their deaths underline the danger faced by those who remained behind to help.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Rajendra Dawadi’s story is a reminder that during a disaster, leadership is not always about having perfect information it can be about recognising when the cost of waiting is far greater than the cost of acting. His decision temporarily disrupted classes, but it ultimately protected 1,643 children from a catastrophe that destroyed their school.
At the same time, the deaths of two school staff members and the thousands still missing show that individual courage cannot replace strong early-warning systems, reliable communication and coordinated disaster preparedness.
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