Nepal Principal Saves 1,643 Students in Flash Flood

A school principal in Nepal is being hailed as a hero after his swift decision to evacuate his school saved the lives of more than 1,600 children as a devastating flash flood tore through the region. Rajendra Dawadi, the 47-year-old head teacher of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot district, acted on a warning on the morning of August 26, 2026, just minutes before floodwaters engulfed the school buildings. The disaster was triggered when a massive chunk of ice and rock collapsed from the Langtang Lirung peak, sending a torrent of debris, mud, and water surging through the Trishuli Valley. The resulting flash flood has killed at least 734 people in Nepal and 16 in Tibet, with thousands more still missing. The collapse itself registered as a magnitude 5.2 event, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. On the morning of the flood, Dawadi was overseeing 1,643 students in and around the school's three-story building. At approximately 9:20 a.m., he received a frantic call from a friend upstream. "He said the village was gone taken by the river. He told me to run," Dawadi recounted.