Of the 18,000 who died however, only those 74 and one other were in the care of their teachers. In other words, being at school and following instructions was typically a very safe course of action. The system and the disaster planning fundamentally worked, in was only in this one case where the planning was insufficient, neglecting to give specific instructions for a tsunami, and people in charge were too complacent to realize the full danger they were in.

Individual resourcefulness or following orders and group planning? I guess there is an element of chance to it either way.