Principal hailed a hero during Nepal flash flood disaster
What's the story
Rajendra Dawadi, the principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal's Trishuli Valley, has been hailed a hero for his quick thinking during a devastating flash flood. The disaster was triggered by a glacier collapse and left hundreds dead. On Wednesday at 9:20am, Dawadi received an alarming warning from a friend: "He said the village was gone: taken by the river. He told me to run."
Evacuation efforts
Dawadi rang school bell, ordered evacuation
With 1,643 children in and around the three-storey school building, Dawadi immediately rang the school bell and ordered an evacuation.
He asked teachers to clear classrooms and called bus drivers, telling all but one to turn back.
As a result, only one bus came across the bridge and managed to turn around just as the bridge collapsed.
As panic spread among the children, one girl suffered a panic attack and was taken uphill on a motorbike.
Staff casualties
Two men died in flash flood
The rest fled on foot with Dawadi, who led them to safety under a bodhi tree as floodwaters engulfed their school buildings.
Dawadi's quick thinking saved all but one teacher and the school's janitor.
Social history teacher Santos Pariyar, 32, was swept away while returning to his rented room beside the river to cook breakfast.
The janitor, Sultan Lama, also died after going back to close doors.
Disaster aftermath
Flash flood killed over 700 people
The flash flood, which killed 734 people in Nepal and 16 in Tibet, was caused by a massive chunk of ice and rock falling from Langtang Lirung peak into the Lhende Khola river gorge.
The landslide covered an area nearly the size of London's Green Park.
Buildings, bridges, and power stations were swept away as torrents of rock, ice, mud, and debris surged through the region.