Nepal school principal evacuates about 1,600 students before flood
Rajendra Dawadi, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Nuwakot district, evacuated about 1,600 students shortly before flooding. He said he made the decision to evacuate about 10 minutes before the school was inundated. ABC News Australia reports.
Decision to evacuate
Dawadi told the BBC that he received telephone warnings about the approaching disaster. One parent came to the school to collect her daughter and reported a major flood. After that, the principal decided to immediately take the children out of the building.
According to Dawadi, a 10-minute delay could have had serious consequences for him and the students. A local resident, Surinder, said that the water flow swept away the entire three-storey school building, which stood in front of a temple; there was a market nearby.
Return to the damaged school
At another school, Shri Bagheshwari Madhyamik in Galchhi, Dhading district, some children avoided danger because they had just left their classrooms for a lunch break. Teachers in other classes also told students to evacuate quickly, leaving behind their backpacks and lunch boxes.
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On Sunday, mothers and children began returning to the premises, covered in a thick layer of mud, to find their belongings and determine what could be saved. According to the families, most students at this school likely survived.
According to the non-governmental organization Save the Children, at least 69 schools have been destroyed or damaged in flood-affected areas of Nepal. This puts the education of nearly 19,000 children at risk. Nepalese authorities closed schools and universities for three days and suspended university examinations because of downpours that caused flash floods and landslides.
Consequences of the disaster
According to the latest data from Nepal Police, at least 794 people have died as a result of the disaster, while the whereabouts of more than 2,500 people remain unknown. Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing people in Gyirong County in Tibet.
