A personal experience from Japan :
I was actually on the way to IPMU when the earthquake struck. Thanks to the early warning system, the train I was on could execute an emergency halt and came to a full stop just before the shock waves reached us. I was stuck in the train for about 2 1/2 hours. Then, we were evacuated on foot and led to the next station. Train service only started to resume the next day, which meant that everyone on the train had to spend the night at a nearby city hall. Even though I never made it to IPMU, e-mails inform me that everyone at IPMU is fine.The writer is Susanne Reffert a Switzerland born, MIT educated, German physicist in Japan.