By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
A headteacher on Sunday told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) how he saved 900 students’ lives from the Nepal floods by moving them out just 10 minutes before the water submerged the school.
Rajendra Dawadi, who is in charge of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, told the BBC he received four calls at 09:10 a.m. local time (03:25 GMT) warning about the disaster, which has now claimed at least 794 lives.
He said he quickly decided to evacuate, telling the children to run to higher ground and ordering drivers of school buses to take them and the staff, including him, away as quickly as possible.
Dawadi said: “If we didn’t make 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.”
The warnings had come from four different people in the space of minutes and helped him evaluate the impending danger.
“A parent came and told me that ‘a big flood was coming, I am here to take my daughter, I will take her’,” he added.
“Parents don’t rush without a strong reason, so it was a confirmation that I shouldn’t waste a second to evacuate the children.
“I decided I shouldn’t delay any more. Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of missing a single day’s classes. I feel proud that we saved so many lives.”
The floods – which decimated parts of Nepal on Wednesday and have left at least 2,426 people missing – saw the school building buried under mud and debris.
Dawadi said the waters arrived so quickly that a hostel building about 100 metres from the river was submerged immediately.
One of the students, Yunisha Amatya, said she scrambled to safety with her friends just before the flood came.
“I along with my friends survived by just 10 seconds only,” she told the BBC.
“Just before the flood came, we were in the class studying. Teachers had gathered in one place and initially had no idea what had happened. After five minutes, teachers came and informed us about the flood and asked us to leave our classrooms.”
She said one student fainted after hearing about the disaster, but many initially underestimated the danger.
Yunisha and her friends scrambled uphill through an escape route behind the school before one of the buses eventually took them away.
“I could not walk fast, and my friends helped me to climb uphill. We tried our best to be in the safer zones then. We escaped through a narrow ladder from backside of the school,” she told BBC.
