Cellphone service disruptions meant it was several hours before he was able to do so.
The company built a chip into a cellphone that detects disruptions to an electrical field around the device.
"The disruption of cellphone coverage and Internet on the 28th exacerbated the unrest in at least three major ways," he writes.
The earthquake caused little structural damage but led to significant disruptions in cellphone service for millions of people, including some emergency workers, the senators noted.
Other manufacturers like Nokia, the Finnish cellphone maker, have said they expect disruptions.
As UCS points out, this disruption can bring power outages, interrupted cellphone coverage, impassable roadways, flooded basements, damaged homes and lower property values.
Allowing cellphones in school at all makes for distraction, class disruption and restricted learning.
Cellphone service was strangled as the quake led to disruptions in air traffic, halted trains, jammed roadways and gave some on the West Coast an opportunity to poke fun at Easterners who seemed panicked and uncertain of how to respond.
