TLDR
Every one of the 1,600 students walked out alive: headteacher Rajendra Dawadi ordered his school evacuated minutes before the floodwater arrived. The wider disaster killed 332 people across three districts and left more than 17,000 children needing urgent help.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Four warnings, one call
Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School sits about 100 metres from the Trishuli River in Rasuwa District, Nepal. On 26 August, a glacial collapse sent a surge of water and debris down the Bhote Koshi River toward that stretch of valley, and headteacher Rajendra Dawadi received four separate warnings within minutes.[1] Dawadi ordered a full evacuation of roughly 1,600 students before the water reached the campus.
"I decided I shouldn't delay any more," Dawadi said. "Even if the flood was not coming, it was just a matter of a single day's classes."[1] The margin proved razor-thin. Student Yunisha said she and her friends survived the inundation by just 10 seconds.[1]
A system that held by improvisation
Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School serves just over 1,600 pupils and stands approximately 100 metres from the Trishuli River. The warnings Dawadi received came through phone alerts and calls from upstream communities, with no formal siren network or designated evacuation route in place.[2] That improvised chain held long enough; the formal infrastructure, roads and bridges across the Trishuli corridor, did not.
Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the Bhote Koshi flash flood devastated homes, roads and bridges along that corridor on 26 August.[2] By 28 August, the ministry recorded 403 people from 25 countries missing, comprising 203 males and 200 females.[3]
The broader toll on children
UNICEF reported on 27 August that at least 17,000 children across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading districts were affected, with 18 schools destroyed and 20 more damaged, and 332 people killed including at least 14 children.[4] Thousands of children lost both classrooms and the shelter those buildings provide during emergencies.
Alice Akunga, UNICEF Representative to Nepal, said children across Rasuwa and Dhading saw their lives being literally washed away in front of their eyes in a very short span of time, with homes, classrooms, and medical facilities damaged, and too many lost their lives and loved ones.[4] UNICEF dispatched hygiene kits and emergency supplies through Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu in the days following the disaster.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How did the headteacher know to evacuate the school?
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How many schools were damaged by the floods?
Simon Wu writes about Asia-Pacific markets and China's economy. He reads the Chinese-language financial press closely and looks for the stories that reach Australia before anyone here notices.
