A Nepalese headteacher had roughly 13 minutes to act after a staff member rushed into his classroom warning that floodwaters were approaching. His decision to evacuate 900 students saved every one of them, even as the school itself was swept away in a disaster that has now killed nearly 1,000 people.
Rajendra Dawadi, principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, made a swift call that has emerged as one of the only pieces of good news amid the devastation. Every one of the roughly 900 pupils who were on site survived when the deluge tore through Nepal's Himalayan river valleys last week.
