Headteacher saves 900 children from deadly flash flood in Nepal

Rajendra Dawadi ordered students to higher ground with moments to spare after receiving warnings from upstream A headteacher in Nepal evacuated 900 children from a school moments before a deadly wall of water struck their town amid the devastating flash floods that have killed almost 800 people and left thousands missing. Rajendra Dawadi decided to halt classes and order children to higher ground after receiving warnings about the scale of the flooding heading their way. Dawadi, the headteacher at Tribhuvan Trishuli secondary school in Nuwakot, which has 1,600 pupils, said he had received four warnings from different people within minutes, including one from Betrawati, a town directly upstream. This prompted him to take immediate action. “I decided I shouldn’t delay any more,” he told the BBC. “Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day’s classes.” Dawadi said during the evacuation of the school he saw a hostel building about 100 metres from the river being engulfed by the torrent of flood water. “If we had made the decision 10 minutes later, all of us, including the students and me, would not be able to speak to you today,” he said. One student said Daw