A quick-thinking headmaster in north-central Nepal saved 1,643 students from deadly flash floods on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, ordering a desperate evacuation just minutes before his three-story school was entirely washed away.
Rajendra Dawadi (also reported as Dadabi), the 47-year-old principal and English teacher at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot district, is being hailed a hero after successfully navigating his pupils to safety during one of the country’s worst recent natural disasters.
⚠️ A Desperate Five-Minute Warning
At 9:20 AM on Wednesday, roughly 900 children were halfway through their early morning shift inside the concrete school building. Another 700 students were actively commuting to the campus on foot and via school buses.
The calm was shattered when Dawadi received a panicked phone call from a friend five miles upstream in Betrawati. The message was terrifyingly simple: “The village is gone: taken by the river. Run.”
Though the school sat about 60 meters above the riverbed, a frantic parent rushed in moments later, confirming that the water levels were surging at an unprecedented speed. Dawadi knew he had no time to waste.
🔔 The Race Against the Water
Dawadi immediately took action to secure the safety of every child under his care:
- Evacuated the Building: He rang the school bell continuously and ordered teachers to empty the classrooms immediately, sending the 900 children uphill toward higher ground.
- Interceded the Commuter Buses: Knowing that several school buses—each packed with up to 80 children—were en route, he began calling the drivers to turn them around.
- A Heart-Stopping Close Call: Dawadi was unable to reach one driver by phone, but spotted the bus approaching a nearby bridge. He managed to flag down the vehicle and force it to turn back. Moments later, the bridge was violently swept away by the current.
Within minutes of the evacuation, a massive torrent of mud, ice, and rock entered the valley. The students, taking cover under a bodhi tree on the hillside, watched in shock as their entire three-story school complex was completely pulverized and washed away by the river. One pupil recounted that she and her friends escaped the water “by just 10 seconds.”
💔 Bittersweet Survival Amid Regional Tragedy
While all 1,643 children miraculously survived the flash flood, the victory was marred by tragedy. Two members of the school staff—32-year-old social history teacher Santos Pariyar and school janitor Sultan Lama—losing their lives after returning to the riverfront area to secure belongings or check on the building.
The disaster, triggered by a glacial collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border, has caused widespread devastation across the region. According to local reports, the death toll has exceeded 700 people, with thousands of others still missing as rescue teams continue to navigate destroyed infrastructure and deep mud.
Despite being lauded across social media and by local authorities, Dawadi has remained humble regarding his life-saving decisions. “What else could I do?” he told reporters. “Fear gave them the energy to flee the rising waters.”
