Nepal Headteacher Evacuates 900 Students 10 Minutes Before Floods Kill 794
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 30
Nepal Headteacher Evacuates 900 Students 10 Minutes Before Floods Kill 794
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 30
Summary
Rajendra Dawadi said four warning calls at 09:10 local time prompted him to clear Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School and turn back buses just minutes before floodwaters hit.
10 minutes later, the flood buried the school in mud and debris; Dawadi said a hostel about 100m from the river was engulfed almost immediately.
Yunisha Amatya, 16, said she and friends escaped uphill through a narrow rear route with only seconds to spare, while some people who took another path were swept away.
900 students and staff first sheltered a few hundred metres uphill, then in a neighboring village, where many were stranded for two nights before rescue teams reached them.
At least 794 people have died and 2,426 are missing in the Nepal floods, underscoring Dawadi's call for stronger sirens and evacuation alerts.
How did a parent's frantic warning outpace official alerts to save 900 students from a deadly Himalayan glacier collapse?
What hidden climate triggers turned heavy rain into a catastrophic magnitude 5.2 debris flow that buried a Nepalese school?
Could cross-border satellite monitoring have predicted the deadly Nepal flood before a local headteacher forced a split-second rescue?
797 Dead, 3,000 Missing: The August 2026 Nepal-Tibet Glacier Collapse and the Struggle for Rescue and Recovery
Overview
The August 2026 disaster began when rapid warming in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region caused permafrost to thaw, weakening mountain rock faces and triggering a massive glacier collapse on Langtang Lirung. This unleashed a high-speed ice-rock avalanche that dammed a river, then burst, sending a devastating flash flood down the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers. The flood buried entire communities, destroyed vital infrastructure, and left hundreds dead and thousands missing. Rescue efforts were hampered by destroyed roads and bridges, forcing teams to rely on helicopters. The disaster also exposed weaknesses in early warning systems, as monitoring stations were wiped out, leaving authorities blind during the crisis.