RASUWA (Nepal) — Each morning at a school in flood-ravaged Nepal, teachers taking attendance are served a painful reminder of the disaster as they mark in red the names of students who never came back.

The catastrophic flood, triggered by a glacial collapse near the China-Nepal border, killed more than 1,400 people, the majority in Nepal.

Over 5,000 remain missing in the Himalayan nation one month after the tsunami-like waves swept away roads, bridges and settlements in the mountainous regions up north.

At the Neelakantha Secondary School in hard-hit Rasuwa district, a teacher marked red circles beside the names of children missing since the August 26 flood.

Unlike more than a dozen schools destroyed by the floods, the Neelakantha school, sitting on relatively higher ground, remained largely intact.

But it lost 70 of its students and four teachers.

“If you look at Rasuwa, you can’t find a family that has not lost a family member,” principal Madhav Lamichhane told AFP.

“All the students and teachers are going through the same pain.”

Most of the missing Neelakantha pupils were on their way to the school from riverside settlements when floodwaters tore through the valley.

“We have been remembering our students with every breath,” said Rama Paudel, a 36-year-old teacher.

“They have lost their lives in this disaster at such a young age. It’s a great loss.”