Bidur, Nepal: Headmaster Rajendra Dawadi was at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Bidur when the school accountant rushed in with an urgent warning: floodwaters were approaching. The alert gave the school just 14 minutes to evacuate, helping save the lives of more than 900 students and 16 faculty members.
The accountant had received a phone call from a relative in Rasuwa, which was among the first areas affected by the disaster. At the same time, teachers at the school began receiving frantic calls from relatives and friends warning them about the unfolding situation. A powerful surge of muddy floodwater was already moving through the valley upstream, destroying entire towns in its path.
Dawadi immediately ordered the school to stop classes and instructed staff to ring the bell to alert everyone. More than 900 of the school’s approximately 1,600 students were on campus when the warning arrived.
The school, which had been rebuilt following Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake that killed around 9,000 people, was located on a narrow stretch of land between the Trishuli River and a hydropower canal. The site has since been destroyed, with the former school grounds now lying within the riverbed.
As the evacuation began, Dawadi instructed buses heading towards the school with additional students to turn around and move to safer locations. Panic spread across the campus, and at least one student fainted during the chaotic escape.
Parents, teachers and students rushed to get children away from the danger. Some parents arrived on motorcycles to collect their children, while others were evacuated by bus or ran towards higher ground.
About 14 minutes after the first warning, the final school bus managed to cross a nearby bridge. Soon afterwards, a wall of water swept through the town, which has a population of around 60,000. Dawadi recalled that the old bridge collapsed as the bus crossed the newer bridge.
The headmaster, who was once a student at the same school, is now calling on authorities to rebuild the institution in a safer location as quickly as possible.
Many parents have credited Dawadi with saving their children. Man Maya Tamang, 50, said she initially believed her daughter Sushmita had been lost in the disaster and described the headmaster as being like a God for giving her daughter and many other children a chance to survive.
However, the flood warning came too late for some people in Bidur. Dawadi said at least one school staff member and the accountant’s mother remain missing.
After alerting the school, the accountant hurried back to his parents’ home to rescue them. He managed to take his father to higher ground, but when he returned to save his mother, their house had already been swept away.
The incident has emerged as a rare story of survival during the devastating Nepal floods and landslides that have killed more than 900 people, while thousands remain missing. The school’s evacuation demonstrates how even a few minutes of advance warning can make a critical difference during a rapidly developing natural disaster.
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