Headteacher evacuates 900 students minutes before Nepal floods strike

Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, Nepal, was evacuated by headteacher Rajendra Dawadi after he received four separate flood warnings at 09:10 local time on Wednesday. Dawadi instructed students to move to higher ground and turned school buses around, completing the evacuation roughly ten minutes before floodwaters reached the campus. > "If we hadn't made a quick decision, if it was 10 minutes later, we all – including the students and me – wouldn't be able to speak to you today," Dawadi said.

The alerts came from multiple callers, including a parent who warned of an imminent flood and offered to take her daughter home, prompting Dawadi to act without delay. The school building was later buried under mud and debris, while the nearby market was swept away. Teachers and students escaped through a narrow ladder on the rear side of the school and reached safer zones on higher ground.

The floods across Nepal have caused at least 794 deaths and left more than 2,400 people missing. Several families, including the parents of a student named Yunisha, were temporarily unable to contact their children until communication was restored after the waters receded.