"Turned the Bus Around One Second Before the Bridge Collapsed"... Nepali Principal Saves Lives of 900 Students

Three-Story School Building Completely Submerged
Bridge Collapses Just After Buses Reverse
Two Staff, Including Custodian Who Secured the School Gate, Perish in the Flood

"What would be the point of continuing the classes? I thought the children needed to be evacuated right away."

The principal of a middle school in the Nuwakot region of Nepal recalled the moments just before a massive flood struck the school.

Rajendra Dawadi, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Middle School (left), and residents and students evacuating due to floods (right). Photo by BBC

According to reports from the BBC and The Guardian on August 30 (local time), Rajendra Dawadi (47), principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, was able to prevent a major disaster by evacuating students to higher ground after receiving a call warning of imminent flooding.

At around 9:20 a.m. on the 26th, Dawadi received four warning calls within minutes from different individuals. He was also informed that the upstream village of Betrawati had already been swept away by the torrent.

He stated, "At first, I thought the school would be safe, as the three-story concrete building is 60 meters above the riverbed." However, shortly after, a parent arrived, saying she had come to pick up her daughter due to reports of flooding, and took her out of class.

Determining that the safety of the students was more important than the lessons, he decided he could not wait any longer, immediately rang the school bell, and instructed the teachers to evacuate all classrooms.

At the time, about 900 out of the total 1,600 students were present for the morning session. While leading the students to higher ground, he witnessed water rising rapidly and the dormitory building, about 100 meters from the river, being quickly submerged.

The Tribhuvan Trishuli Middle School before flooding. Photo by India Today

On the 29th, Tribhuvan Trishuli Middle School was completely covered with debris. BBC

Principal Dawadi then immediately called the school buses that were each carrying about 80 students and heading to school, instructing them to turn back. When he noticed the last bus, which he had not been able to contact, crossing the bridge just in front of the school, he shouted at the driver to turn the vehicle around—even as water began to pour into the campus.

Immediately after the bus managed to reverse and escape to safety, the bridge reportedly collapsed into the river. The students promptly disembarked and began their evacuation. When one female student experienced a panic attack, staff put children on the back of motorcycles to get them up the hill.

Just minutes after Principal Dawadi and the staff had sent the remaining students up the hill, the current swept rapidly down the mountainside, and the school building reportedly vanished without a trace.

This flood occurred when a huge mass of ice and rock broke off from the Langtang Lirung peak near the Tibetan border and crashed down the steep 1,200-meter-high canyon of the upper Rende Khola River.

Currently, around 2,500 people are reported missing in Nepal, and two staff members from the school lost their lives. According to the school, 32-year-old rookie history teacher Santosh Phaiyar was swept away after returning to his rented accommodation for breakfast following his morning supplementary class.

The school custodian, Sultan Lama, handed the keys to Principal Dawadi so the children could evacuate, then ran back down to the school to lock the doors just before the flood struck, and perished. Expressing his condolences, Principal Dawadi said, "If my decision had been only 10 minutes later, none of us would be here. I only did what had to be done."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.