Half an hour really is a significant amount of time in a life and death emergency. Most of the people in Indonesia seemed to have zero warning. Assuming you're listening to your radio or you feel the quake, in half an hour, you can easily get to high ground, get up on your roof, and get all your family up there, too. Cement structures not directly affected by the earthquake seemed to do pretty well at withstanding the swells of water. Hotels, for example, where most of the videos circulating seemed to be filmed from. All you need is one building like that which everyone in town can get up on the roof of.
|