CRUSH:
The fast order of director Saeed Ahmad on Friday saved almost 900 students in the minutes of Swat Valley affected by Pakistan’s floods before the waters grew his school.
“It was exactly 9 in the morning when I had a last look at the current and I felt that I was going to burst its banks due to the continuous rains,” said Ahmad, 59, director of the school, Anadolu. Ahmad ordered an immediate evacuation of almost 950 students enrolled.
In 15 minutes, the children and teachers had left. Minutes later, the water torrents crashed into the school, washing half of the building, their boundary walls and the recreation courtyard.
“Around 900 students were present on August 15 when the flood hit our village and other adjacent areas,” said Sarwar Khan, a local councilor. “This timely action of the director saved 900 lives.”
The school was one of the dozens of educational institutions destroyed in floods that have wreaked havoc in several districts of the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing more than 350 people in the last three days, authorities said.
Ahmad, who has been serving as director for 12 years, recalled that the same building was destroyed during the floods in July 1995. “There were summer vacations; so there were no victims,” he said.
“That incident was in my mind when I decided to evacuate.” Pakistan is classified among the most vulnerable countries for the effects of climate change.
In 2022, catastrophic floods immersed a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and causing estimated damage of $ 32b.
