Nepal Principal Evacuates 1,600 Students Before Flood
Nepal Principal Evacuates 1,600 Students Before Flood
The News
A Nepalese school principal got 1,643 students out of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School minutes before floodwaters washed the building away last Wednesday.
Rajendra Dawadi acted on a phone call warning him that a village five miles upstream had been taken by the river.
About 900 children were already inside the school. Another 700 were on their way in, on foot and by bus.
Every student survived. Two staff members did not, including teacher Santos Pariyar, 32.
Timeline
Dawadi receives a call telling him the river has swallowed a village five miles upstream of his school, which sits roughly 200 feet above the water, according to the Daily Mail.
He orders the 900 children already on campus out of the classrooms and starts calling bus drivers carrying the roughly 700 students still en route, turning them back.
He reaches every driver but one. That bus cleared the bridge as it was collapsing.
A landslide and floodwater destroy the school building.
Nepal's government shuts schools and universities for three days and pauses university exams as rescue teams push into cut-off districts.
Reactions
The BBC and Yahoo News reported Dawadi's account of the evacuation, describing a head teacher who moved on a single warning call rather than waiting for an official alert.
British outlets including The Sun and the Daily Mail cast him as the hero of a disaster that has otherwise been a catalogue of losses, crediting him with saving more than 1,600 children.
Aid group Save the Children, cited in reporting carried by The Independent and The Washington Times, has warned about the scale of damage to Nepal's schools.
What's Next
Rescue teams are still reaching isolated areas, and officials expect the missing-person count to rise.
Chinese authorities have warned Nepal of increased water flow from upstream, triggering fresh flood alerts that are keeping displaced residents from going home.
Malaysia has pledged $1 million in aid and is sending a disaster search-and-rescue team.
There is no date yet for reopening schools in the worst-hit districts.
More
The floods were triggered by a glacier collapse on the Langtang Lirung peak. At least 788 people have been killed in Nepal and 2,502 are listed as missing, with more deaths and disappearances recorded on the Tibetan side.
Sixty-nine schools were destroyed or damaged, disrupting education for nearly 19,000 children.
Dawadi's school was not the only one where timing decided who lived. Reports carried by The Independent, KSAT and The Washington Times describe children at another school who survived because they had already left their classrooms for a lunch break when the water arrived.
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