Shafaqna English– On the day of the catastrophic Himalayan flood, Headmaster Rajendra Dawadi of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Bidur, Nepal, received a crucial early warning when his accountant burst in shouting that a flood was coming.
The accountant had just been alerted by a relative in Rasuwa, the first area hit, giving the school only 14 minutes to evacuate. Dawadi immediately halted classes, rang the bell, and ordered buses carrying more students to divert to safer locations. Despite chaos and panic — with one student fainting — teachers, parents, and students worked together to evacuate using buses, motorbikes, and on foot.
The last bus crossed a nearby bridge just moments before the old bridge collapsed and a massive mud wave destroyed the town of 60,000 people. The school, which had been rebuilt after the 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000, was completely washed away and now lies under the riverbed.
Remarkably, over 900 students and 16 staff members survived, though at least one staff member and the accountant’s mother remain missing. Dawadi, once a student at the same school, is now hailed as a hero by grateful parents, one of whom likened him to God for saving her daughter.
However, for many other families in Bidur, the warnings arrived too late, and the death toll across the region has surpassed 900 with thousands still unaccounted for.
Source: Reuters