Rajendra Dawadi was in a classroom when a colleague burst in with an urgent warning: floodwaters were surging through Nepal’s Trishuli Valley, smashing homes, bridges and whole villages in their path.
Soon after, another teacher received a phone alert. Within minutes, a parent arrived to collect her child. The scale of the threat was still unclear, but Dawadi, the school principal, understood there was no time to wait. He sounded the school bell and directed students and staff to leave the building immediately and climb to higher ground.
“I immediately decided to stop … school” and get the children out, he told The Associated Press.
As Dawadi moved behind the fleeing students toward a nearby hill, the floodwaters advanced behind him. From the safety of the slope, he watched as the school he had once attended as a child — and later served for years as a teacher — was swallowed by a violent rush of water, mud, boulders and debris. Two staff members were unable to escape and remain missing.
Dawadi’s swift evacuation is credited with saving at least 900 students from last week’s devastating flash floods in Nepal, which were triggered by a glacial collapse in the Himalayas. The disaster killed over 900 people across Nepal and China, and more than 4,700 others are still missing.
As Nepal confronts the aftermath of one of the region’s catastrophic natural disasters, Dawadi’s actions have stood out as a powerful example of clear judgment, courage and quick response under pressure.
Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School had 1,643 students enrolled. At least 900 were already on campus that morning, while others were still traveling to class. Dawadi ordered everyone at the school to evacuate and phoned bus drivers, instructing them not to continue toward the campus.
One bus filled with students had already arrived when Dawadi told the driver to turn around, he said. The vehicle crossed a newly built bridge, and moments later, the old bridge beside it collapsed.
For Dawadi, the scale of the destruction has become personal, as the school had been both his workplace and a large part of his life.
“I have no words. I got education from that school. And I gave education at that school,” he said.
The destruction of Dawadi’s school was not an isolated loss.
Across northern Nepal, the floods have left thousands of children without classrooms, disrupted their education and raised fears that the disaster could cost them months of schooling. Charity group Save the Children said in a statement that at least 69 schools in northern Nepal have been completely destroyed, putting the education of nearly 19,000 students at risk.
Dawadi’s quick thinking and swift response during the disaster have been hailed as an act of heroism. When he returned to the site of the school days later, parents embraced him as they thanked him for saving their children.
“Their parents hugged me, they cried with me,” he said. “They were emotional.”
Student Suvina Tamang, 14, said the building was swept away shortly after the students had been evacuated. “I will thank him when I see him” for saving my life, she said.
But Dawadi is reluctant to accept the role of hero. For him, rescuing his students was his responsibility. Now he says, students will need psychological counseling. Then, lessons must begin again, even if the school must temporarily relocate.
His appeal to the Nepalese government is simple: rebuild the schools and get children back to classes.
Associated Press journalist Rishi Lekhi contributed to this report. Saaliq reported from New Delhi.
