Educators' Quick Orders Saved 1,600 People From Flood Waters in Nepal

The fast-thinking of teachers and administrators at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Trishuli valley region surely saved the lives of more than 1,600 children and adults. Their heroic efforts came amid flash floods that engulfed entire villages in the South Asian country last week.

On Sunday, the school’s principal, Rajendra Dadabi, told The Sunday Times in the UK that he received a phone call from a panicked friend in Betrawati, five miles upstream. “He said the village was gone, taken by the river,” Dadabi said. “He told me to run.”

Dadabi and other staff immediately decided to evacuate the school. They told children to run to higher ground. They ordered buses filled with students to turn around. All the students are believed to have survived. That's even though the school soon was overtaken by flood waters.

“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,” Rajendra Dawadi told the BBC. He is a teacher at the school.

By late Sunday, roughly 800 people were confirmed dead in Nepal’s mudslides and floods. Thousands remain missing. The flash flood is believed to have been caused by a massive landslide in the mountains. It was touched off when a 2,000-foot part of a melting glacier collapsed.

The surge created a high-speed "tsunami of dirt.” The mud raced miles and miles downstream, scientists told Reuters. Water levels in two river systems spiked. They grew by as much as 30 feet in just 30 minutes. This gave downstream villagers little time to escape.

Nepal’s armed forces have been deployed in efforts to rescue people believed trapped in several flooded hydropower plants. Tunnel-rescue teams from China and India have flown in to assist.

Reflect: Who is someone in your life who stays calm and takes action when things get stressful?

Photo of the aftermath of devastating flash floods and mudslides in Nepal from Reuters.