<\/p>\n
BIDUR, Nepal (AP) – Rajendra Dawadi was inside his classroom when a colleague rushed in with a warning: Floodwaters were racing through Nepal\u2019s Trishuli Valley, tearing apart homes, bridges and entire villages.<\/p>\n
Then a teacher received another warning by phone. Moments later, a parent arrived to take her child home. The danger had not yet been confirmed, but Dawadi, the principal, had little time to act. He rang the school bell and ordered his students and staff out of the building and toward higher ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cI immediately decided to stop … school\u201d and get the children out, he told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
As he followed them to a nearby hill, the floodwaters rose behind him. From the safety of the hillside, he turned to watch the school where he had once been a student – and where he had spent years teaching – disappear beneath a torrent of water, mud, boulders and debris. Two staff members could not make it and remain missing.<\/p>\n
Dawadi\u2019s decision to evacuate the school saved at least 900 students from last week\u2019s devastating flash floods in Nepal, unleashed after a glacial collapse in the Himalayas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Operation Blessing is on the scene to help the Nepali community. Click here to support Operation Blessing’s efforts.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n As Nepal grapples with the catastrophic natural disaster, Dawadi\u2019s story has emerged as a striking example of foresight and courage.<\/p>\n The Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School had 1,643 students. At least 900 were on campus that morning, while some students were still making their way to school. Dawadi ordered those already there to leave and called bus drivers to tell them not to come.<\/p>\n One bus, packed with students, had already reached the school when Dawadi told the driver to turn back, he said. The bus crossed a newly constructed bridge and, moments later, the old bridge beside it collapsed.<\/p>\n For Dawadi, the scale of the destruction has become personal, as the school had been both his workplace and a large part of his life.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no words. I got education from that school. And I gave education at that school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Dawadi\u2019s quick thinking and swift response during the disaster have been hailed as an act of heroism. When he returned to the site of the school days later, parents embraced him as they thanked him for saving their children.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir parents hugged me, they cried with me,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n Operation Blessing is on the scene to help the Nepali community. Click here to support Operation Blessing’s efforts.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Student Suvina Tamang, 14, said the building was swept away shortly after the students had been evacuated. \u201cI will thank him when I see him\u201d for saving my life, she said.<\/p>\n But Dawadi is reluctant to accept the role of hero. For him, rescuing his students was his responsibility. Now he says, students will need psychological counseling. Then, lessons must begin again, even if the school must temporarily relocate.<\/p>\n His appeal to the Nepalese government is simple: rebuild the schools and get children back to classes.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. BIDUR, Nepal (AP) – Rajendra Dawadi was inside his classroom when a colleague rushed in with a warning: Floodwaters were racing through Nepal\u2019s Trishuli Valley, tearing apart homes, bridges and entire villages. Then a teacher received another warning by phone. Moments later, a parent arrived to take her child home. The danger had not yet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3086,8969,3020,10679,2377,529,202,1073,5776],"class_list":["post-32072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-actions","tag-flooding","tag-lives","tag-principals","tag-quick","tag-saved","tag-school","tag-students","tag-swept"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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