ABSTRACT
Children and teachers were doing all the normal things students do on a Friday afternoon in Sendai, Japan. They were working on math problems, finishing reports, and studying their history. At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, buzzers started going off in offices, on cell phones, and in schools. Walls shook and books flew off shelves. Glass beakers and test tubes smashed to the ground, and science rooms were covered in glass. Teachers led students out of the school building into the open, away from collapsing walls. Adults poured out of damaged buildings into the open air. Hundreds of lives had been saved by Japan’s early warning system. The earthquake was so strong it pushed up a section of sea floor 66 feet and dropped the coastline by 2 feet. Small fishing villages disappeared under the huge waves, and entire towns were immediately destroyed.
