@thebhutanesenewspaper: 𝐀 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝟑𝟕𝟎 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐲𝐚 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐥 “The big flood is coming, run...” An unidentified man sprinting past Uttargaya Public School in Betrawati, across the river and a few km from Trishuli Bazaar, shouting those words gave more than 370 pupils and their teachers the warning they desperately needed. It was breakfast time at Uttargaya Public English Boarding School when Pawan Sharma received the warning. It was around 9:15 am. A huge surge of floodwater was moving downstream, the school was told, and people in the area needed to move at least a kilometre away from the Betrawati turn. The hostel students were still eating. Sharma did not wait. “We stopped their food and took the children to the top of the hill, to a safer place,” he told Onlinekhabar. For a school with more than 370 students, there was little time to think about what might happen next. There was only time to get the children out of the flood’s path. What followed was a frantic effort to account for students, reunite them with their families and reach those who had become stranded as the flood swept through the area. Sharma says around 95 percent of the students under the school’s care have since been handed over to their guardians or otherwise accounted for. But several children remain difficult to trace. The school has records or information about roughly 40 to 45 percent of the students who were at the school during the disaster, he said. Around 10 percent were either on their way to other locations or staying at shelters elsewhere. For some others, the school still does not know what happened. “We have no record of them,” Sharma said. “We don’t know whether they left or stayed.” Some of those children may have been with their guardians when the flood struck. That has made it difficult for the school to establish where they are. The danger was not limited to the children. As news of the flood spread, guardians began rushing towards the school to take their children home. Some came on motorcycles and in auto-rickshaws. But even the journey to collect their children became dangerous. “There were guardians who came to take their children, but they were caught along the way,” Sharma said. Some managed to make their way uphill. Others were pulled to safety by people around them. For Sharma and the school staff, the rescue did not end after the children were moved to higher ground. Some students had become stranded in forested areas. The school arranged vehicles and sent staff, including managing director Suraj, to reach them. The rescue continued late into the night. “We were bringing them down until 10 at night,” Sharma said. When help did not arrive as quickly as the school needed, staff members began arranging things themselves. Sharma said he approached the municipality, a nearby security barracks and government officials, asking for food and medicines for students sheltering above the school. They were told relief would be provided, he said, but the immediate assistance did not materialise. So the school bought first-aid supplies itself. School representatives then travelled to Nuwakot, where they received further help and arranged vehicles to reach students who were still stranded. The vehicles were used to bring children to safety, and the school continued handing them over to their families. Most of the school is wiped out with only one structure standing. Some of the agonising voices in the video are school children and staff worried about their parents and families. Some parents who rushed to the school hearing about the flood got washed away. Video: Social Media Information: Online Khabar from Nepal, TOI India and online sources

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Thursday 10 September 2026 05:43:02 GMT