The evidence that duck and cover would work in the WWII era is that some survivors were partially shielded and partially burned.
Up a hill in a tsunami works, up stairs or up a tree doesn’t work so well (even though it’s higher ground) when the wave hits if the tree or building do not survive (or the water in the building reaches the ceiling or the wave force knocks shelves down, knocks a person into a wall, etc.).
Ultimately when fleeing, you can only move as fast as those in front of you (and some do not have a good survival instinct) or if you can manage to get around them, somewhat faster but nowhere near “full speed”.
Common sense tells you to duck and cover rather than stand at the window looking at the blast and burning and getting blinded, and catching glass and 2X4s in your teeth, and it tells you to move to higher ground in a tsunami.
You are really over dramatizing everything and you even have people blocking you running from something and not being able to run “full speed”.
You don’t need to work so hard at whatever you are working at.