India, Sept. 1 -- Rajendra Dawadi was inside his classroom when the school's accountant 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 had little time to act. He rang the school bell and ordered his students and staff out of the building and toward 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 s...