Within an hour of the disaster, hundreds of anxious parents had massed at Public School 192, a school that serves many Dominican immigrants in West Harlem.
Though the early hour of the disaster was thought to have limited the casualties at schools in the region, as classes had not yet begun, more than 200 of the 2,698 people who died were teachers and students.
For many who lived on the island, the hour of the disaster was especially unnerving, given that the 3 p.m. ferry would often carry students home from Manhattan schools.
It was painfully evident in the early hours of the disaster that neither Mayor Reed nor Governor Deal could manage constituent expectations because that would require an adequate disaster plan which, would have not only lessened the severity of the event, but would have included the deployment of highly visible emergency assets as well as talking points beyond the blame game.
China, increasingly making inroads in Nepal, also pledged all-out assistance within hours of the disaster.
The witnesses revealed a disorganized firefighting effort in the first crucial hours of the disaster.
In fact, in the earliest hours of the disaster, medical air ambulance companies did attempt to prioritize rescuing the very sickest patients from hospitals.
Google was also quick in the early hours of the disaster to assemble a Person Finder site that helped people learn of the status of friends and relatives affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
The documents paint a picture of increasing desperation at the plant in the early hours of the disaster, as workers who had finally gotten the go-ahead to vent realized that the system would not respond to their commands.
Within the first 48 hours of the disaster, 2.3 million people shared instructions for an easy way to give money to the victims — text the word "Haiti" to the Red Cross's phone number to give $10.
