10 Minutes Before the Flood: How a Nepal Headteacher Saved 1,600 Children

On the morning of August 26, 2026, Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, Nepal, was filled with the ordinary sounds of school life. Nearly 900 children were already on the premises, while hundreds more were still making their way to school.Then, at around 9:10 am, the warnings began. Headteacher Rajendra Dawadi received several urgent calls from people in and around Betrawati, a village upstream. The message was alarming: the river was rising rapidly and floodwaters were heading towards the area.Dawadi did not wait for certainty. He sounded the school bell, ordered teachers to clear the classrooms and told the children to move towards higher ground. He also called school bus drivers and instructed them to turn around before reaching the dangerous valley.Within minutes, the school was transformed from a place of learning into an evacuation zone.Just Minutes From DisasterAround 1,600 children were either at school or travelling there that morning. Teachers led students uphill, away from the river, eventually gathering them beneath a tree that became their temporary refuge. Then the flood arrived.The water surged through the valley with devastating speed, swallowing buildings, roads and parts of the nearby market. A hostel located only about 100 metres from the river was engulfed almost immediately. The school itself was buried beneath mud and debris. Dawadi later reflected on how close the disaster had come.“If we didn't make a quick decision… 10 minutes later, we all wouldn't be able to speak to you today,” he told the BBC.‘We Survived By Just 10 Seconds’For the students, the escape was terrifying. Sixteen-year-old Yunisha Amatya recalled scrambling uphill with her friends as the flood approached. They escaped through a narrow route behind the school, with students pushing and helping one another towards safety. She later said that she along with her friends survived by just 10 seconds.Some students initially struggled to understand the seriousness of the situation. But within moments, the reality became impossible to ignore as the flood swept through the area.A Hero Who Says He Just Did His JobTwo school staff members, however, did not make it to safety. Social studies teacher Santos Pariyar had returned towards the river, while school janitor Sultan Lama went back to secure the school doors. Neither survived.As the community began calling Dawadi a hero, the 47-year-old principal remained modest about his actions. Yet his decision to trust those warnings and act immediately made a remarkable difference. The river took almost everything in its path, but thanks to one man’s courage, it could not take the future of 1,600 children.