Don't get me started on how stubborn and calm the geologists were. Ring the damn alarm! Do your job! And then once the lady gets to the box to press the red button she stops and stares at it for 5 minutes. Don't even get me started with the moment the main actor and his daughter run up the hill and then his friend's wife's leg gets stuck and all they do is stare at her. HELP HER. ACT FAST. No. They just calmly stand their and stare. Oh, and whem that lady stands in front of the hotel frozen, just admiring the incoming tsunami. Fantastic movie but horrible realistic approach by the characters.
When emergencies like this happen a lot of people tend to just get overwhelmed. They have emergency manuals with big tabs, because when something surreal happens right in front of you it's the opposite being jolted and jumping during a horror flick, you just shut down and have a hard time remembering your own name. When trying to remember the procedures, every procedure you've trained for just flashes through your mind. Multiply that all the different emergencies that can happen.
I've been in the position more than a few times. When something traumatic is happening 90% of the people will tend to stand there until they see movement - then they will follow the crowd. They wait for direction and when you tell them to move, they all move. 5% will go into hyper mode and either think up things to do to help, or ask what they can do. The other 5% will just lock up and you have to physically grab them and lead them where you want them to go.
Everyone hopes they will be in the 5% group that springs to action, but it's kind of hit or miss, sometimes you luck out.
So many plane crashes have been caused by pilots winging procedures, even with years of training, that they use the book for everything now. Always doing the right thing at the right time only happens in movies, lol.