More than 4,400 remain missing in Nepal and China after the devastating flash floods, unleashed after a glacial collapse in the Himalayas
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenAssociated PressPublished: 9:26am, 1 Sep 2026Rajendra Dawadi was inside his classroom when a colleague rushed in with a warning: floodwaters were racing through Nepal’s 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 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 towards higher ground.
“I immediately decided to stop … school” and get the children out, he said.
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.
As Nepal grapples with the catastrophic natural disaster, Dawadi’s story has emerged as a striking example of foresight and courage.
