Rajendra Dawadi was at school when he got a warning that a massive flood was heading towards the area. He quickly ordered the evacuation of the school and helped save 1,643 children from the deadly flash floods in Nepal’s Nuwakot district.
He told Dawadi to run, The Times reported. Dawadi initially thought the school was safe. He also called the school bus drivers and asked them to turn back. By then, one bus that he could not contact was already crossing the bridge. Soon after, the floodwaters swept through the area. Mud, rocks, ice and debris destroyed buildings, bridges and other structures, including the school. Most of the school staff also escaped. However, two staff members were killed.
Dawadi, 47, is the principal and an English teacher at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in the Trishuli Valley. At around 9:20 am on Wednesday, a friend called him and warned that a nearby village had been swept away by the river. The three-storey concrete building was around 60 metres above the river. But all 1,643 children survived.
But soon, a parent rushed to the school and said the water was rising quickly. He immediately rang the school bell and told the teachers to take the children out of their classrooms.
He told me to run,” The Times reported. School janitor Sultan Lama was also killed after going back to the school to close its doors. Social history teacher Santos Pariyar, 32, was washed away after returning to his rented room near the river to cook breakfast. Earlier reporting noted: 1,643 children, one warning: How a Nepal teacher pulled off a heroic rescue When Rajendra Dawadi arrived at school to teach on Wednesday morning, little did he know he would soon be racing to save the lives of 1,643 children as a deadly flash flood tore through Nepal’s Trishuli Valley. Earlier reporting noted: A 47-year-old teacher and principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Trishuli Valley, received a warning at 9.20 am on Wednesday from a friend: “He said the village was gone: taken by the river. Earlier reporting noted: Dawadi, had 1,643 children in and around the three-storey school in flood-hit Nuwakot that morning. The flash flood, triggered by a glacier collapse, tore through mountain river systems, killing over 700 people in Nepal and 16 in Tibet.
